European, Iranian Diplomats Hold Last-Minute Nuclear Talks As Tehran Faces Sanctions Threat

Last Updated:August 26, 2025, 14:59 IST

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced the meeting on Monday. This meeting will follow up on the previous meet between the countries in Istanbul on July 25.

Iran nuclear talks: Iran holds talks with France, Britain and Germany (Reuters Image)

British, French, and German representatives are set to hold last-minute talks with their Iranian counterparts in Geneva on Tuesday, as the deadline for the Europeans to reimpose sanctions on Iran nears.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced the meeting on Monday. This will be another round of talks, following up on the previous meeting between the sides in Istanbul on July 25.

Iran had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels as part of its nuclear programme and was reportedly close to obtaining a nuclear weapon. Israel launched aerial attacks on Iranian nuclear sites in June, triggering a strong response by Tehran. The exchange of projectiles continued for 12 days, until a US-brokered ceasefire brought an end to the war.

After this, Tehran had cut off all cooperation with the Atomic Energy Agency, sparking the Europeans’ concerns over the Iranian nuclear programme.

Tehran’s move has left the international community blinded to Iran’s programme and the status of its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% purity, a short, technical step to weapons-grade levels of 90%.

Iran has maintained that its nuclear programme is peaceful.

Earlier this year, Europe and the US agreed that if Iran doesn’t meet certain conditions by the end of August, they will take action. These conditions include restarting nuclear talks with the US, letting UN inspectors visit its nuclear sites, and explaining what happened to more than 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium.

The “snapback" rule in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal allows any member country to trigger it if they believe Iran isn’t following the agreement. Once triggered, it quickly brings back all the old sanctions that were lifted under the deal—and this can’t be blocked even by powerful UN Security Council members like Russia or China.

Iran argues that Europe has no legal right to bring back UN sanctions through the snapback rule. It says that after the US pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal in 2018, European countries also failed to keep their promises—especially the economic benefits Iran was supposed to get from the deal.

In 2015, world powers made a deal with Iran to stop it from developing nuclear weapons. Iran agreed to limit how much uranium it enriched—just enough for nuclear energy—and, in return, economic sanctions against it were lifted. UN inspectors were given the job of checking Iran’s programme.

According to the deal, Iran could enrich uranium only up to 3.67% purity, keep no more than 300 kilograms of uranium, and use only its most basic IR-1 centrifuges, which are machines that enrich uranium by spinning it at high speed.

(With AP inputs)

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