Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday that Tehran would respond to a decision of France, Great Britain and Germany to trigger a mechanism that will reimpose the sanctions of a low -dying nuclear agreement of 2015.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will respond properly to this illegal and unjustified action by the three European countries, to protect and guarantee their national rights and interests,” Araghchi told his French, British and German counterparts in a telephone call, according to a statement from his ministry.
He asked the three countries to “properly correct this incorrect decision in the next few days.”
Although Araghchi did not specify what retaliation measures Iran could take, Tehran previously warned that such movement could lead to the exclusion of the European powers of any future negotiation on Iran’s nuclear program.
In a statement, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “This decision of the three European countries will seriously undermine the continuous process of interaction and cooperation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (OIEA),” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement, to measure a “provocative and unnecessary climbing.”
The movement of the European trio, known as the E3, took place a few days after the Iranian and European diplomats held conversations in Geneva, the second from Israel’s attack to Iran who began a 12 -day war in June.
The E3 had been threatening in recent weeks to activate the so -called “Snapback” mechanism, citing Iran’s continuous breach with its commitments under the 2015 nuclear agreement.
The three powers launched a 30 -day process to reimpose sanctions, fearing that they would otherwise lose the prerogative in mid -October to restore them.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the decision did not indicate the end of diplomacy, while his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul, urged Iran to completely cooperate with the UN Nuclear Vigilatory Agency and commit to directing conversations with the United States during the next month.
That agreement was torpedoed in 2018 when Donald Trump, during his first term as president, unilaterally withdrew the United States and slapped the paralyzing sanctions to Iran.
Tehran and Washington had begun nuclear conversations in April with the aim of reaching another agreement, but these negotiations were derailed by the war with Israel, during which the United States also hit Iranian nuclear sites.
