Iran warned not to escalate after UK, Germany and France impose sanctions

The UK, France and Germany have called on Iran not to escalate tensions and to pursue negotiations after UN sanctions were reinstated on Saturday.

The three countries said they had “no choice” but to bring back the sweeping measures against Tehran “as a last resort” over its “continued nuclear escalation” and lack of cooperation.

“We urge Iran to refrain from any escalatory action,” they said in a joint statement, adding: “The reimposition of UN sanctions is not the end of diplomacy.”

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian insisted last week that the country had no intention of developing nuclear weapons, and condemned the re-imposition of international sanctions as “unfair, unjust, and illegal”.

The United Nations’ sweeping economic and military sanctions were reimposed on Iran at 00:00 GMT on Saturday – a decade after they were lifted in a landmark international deal over its nuclear programme.

Iran stepped up banned nuclear activity after the US quit the deal in 2016. Donald Trump pulled the US out in his first term as president, criticising the deal – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, as flawed.

Talks between the three countries and Iran on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly earlier this week failed to produce a deal which would have delayed the sanctions being reimposed.

In a joint statement early on Sunday, the foreign ministers of the three European countries, known as the E3, said: “Given that Iran repeatedly breached these commitments, the E3 had no choice but to trigger the snapback procedure, at the end of which those resolutions were brought back into force.”

In the meantime, they said they would “continue to pursue diplomatic routes and negotiations”.

They cited Iran’s failure to “take the necessary actions to address our concerns, nor to meet our asks on extension, despite extensive dialogue”.

Specifically, they mentioned Tehran’s refusal to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.

“Iran has not authorised IAEA inspectors to regain access to Iran’s nuclear sites, nor has it produced and transmitted to the IAEA a report accounting for its stockpile of high-enriched uranium,” the statement read.

Iran suspended IAEA inspection after Israel and the US bombed several of its nuclear sites and military bases in June.

Under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is legally obliged to allow inspections of its nuclear sites, and on Friday, the IAEA confirmed that they had resumed.

But while Iran has been in talks with the IAEA to find a way forward, it has also warned that a return of sanctions will put that in jeopardy.

Pezeshkian has walked back from his earlier threats for Iran to quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

But, speaking to reporters on Friday, he added that Tehran would need reassurances that its nuclear facilities would not be attacked by Israel in order to normalise its nuclear enrichment programme.

He also rejected a US demand to hand over all of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium in return for a three-month exemption from sanctions, saying: “Why would we put ourselves in such a trap and have a noose around our neck each month?”

Iran said on Saturday it was recalling its ambassadors to Britain, France and Germany for consultations.