WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iran has asked for heavy US sanctions against Tehran to be lifted and that he is open to having a discussion about it. &quot;Frankly, Iran has been asking if the sanctions could be lifted. Iran has got very heavy US sanctions, and it makes it really hard,&quot; Trump said during a dinner with Central Asian leaders. &quot;I&#39;m open to hearing that, and we&#39;ll see what happens, but I would be open to it.&quot; Western countries, including the United States, have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire atomic weapons, while Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Tehran has been reeling under years of international sanctions, especially after the United States in 2018 withdrew from an international nuclear accord with Tehran and reimposed tough punitive measures. In mid-June, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, triggering a war that saw the United States join briefly with strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. The 12-day war with Israel, which prompted an Iranian response with missile and drone strikes, derailed nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington ,which had begun in April. Trump said that Iran had once been the &quot;bully of the Middle East&quot; but no longer had the &quot;possibility of nuclear weapons.&quot; The Republican president, who returned to office in January, has repeatedly said the strikes obliterated Iran&#39;s nuclear program, but the full extent of the damage remains unknown. In September, the United Nations reinstated sanctions against Tehran under the so-called &quot;snapback&quot; mechanism after Britain, France, and Germany triggered the process. Those measures bar dealings linked to the Islamic Republic&#39;s nuclear and ballistic missile activities. Oman, which has hosted several rounds of US-Iran nuclear talks, has called on both sides to return to negotiations. The talks had aimed for a new agreement that would curb Iran&#39;s nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief. International stabilization force to be in Gaza &lsquo;very soon&rsquo;Separately, while speaking, President Trump said he expects a US-coordinated international stabilization force to be on the ground in Gaza &quot;very soon,&quot; following two years of war in the territory between Israel and Hamas. The multinational force &mdash; likely to include troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates &mdash; is part of Trump&#39;s post-war governance plan for Gaza. The plan helped lead to a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian group on October 10, but the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has not abated. &quot;It&#39;s going to be very soon. And Gaza is working out very well,&quot; Trump said at the function with Central Asian leaders. &quot;You haven&#39;t been hearing too much about problems, and I&#39;ll tell you, we&#39;ve had countries that have volunteered if there&#39;s a problem with Hamas.&quot; The force is supposed to train and support vetted Palestinian police in the Gaza Strip, with backing from Egypt and Jordan. It will also be tasked with securing border areas and preventing weapons smuggling to Hamas, which triggered the conflict with its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. On Wednesday, the United States circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution to partner nations aimed at shoring up Trump&#39;s plan, including by greenlighting the international force. Washington&#39;s UN envoy Mike Waltz shared the draft with the 10 elected Security Council members and several regional partners &mdash; Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey &mdash; a spokesperson for the US mission said in a statement. A vote has not yet been scheduled. According to diplomatic sources, several countries have indicated their willingness to participate in the force, but insist on a Security Council mandate before actually deploying troops into the Palestinian territory. The head of the US Central Command, the military command responsible for the Middle East, said last month during a visit to Gaza that no US troops would be deployed there.

Americas

US president says international stabilization force to be deployed in Gaza “very soon”; Tehran has been reeling under years of international sanctions, especially after US withdrew from international nuclear accord with Iran, reimposing tough punitive measures.

Trump says 'open' to considering lifting Iran sanctions

LONDON: Britain, France and Germany will seek to restart stalled nuclear talks with Iran and the United States, the three European countries said in a joint statement on Friday. Their announcement came nearly two weeks after UN sanctions were reimposed on Iran, under a &quot;snapback&quot; process the three European nations had initiated and which became effective from September 28. Iran has said that, following those revived sanctions, it would not immediately resume nuclear talks. In their joint statement, Britain, France and Germany said: &quot;We are determined to reinitiate negotiations with Iran and the United States towards a comprehensive, durable and verifiable agreement that ensures Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon.&quot; A spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, Esmaeil Baqaei, on Monday said that &quot;we have no plans for negotiations at this stage&quot;. He added that Iran was examining the &quot;consequences and implications&quot; of the restart of sanctions. &quot;Of course, diplomacy -- in the sense of maintaining contacts and consultations -- will continue,&quot; Baqaei said. &quot;Whenever we feel that diplomacy can be effective, we will certainly make decisions based on the country&#39;s interests and priorities,&quot; he added. Western countries, spearheaded by the United States and joined by Israel, accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons -- a charge Tehran has long denied. The United States on June 22 bombed nuclear sites in Iran, joining an Israeli air campaign against various targets in the country. France, Germany and Britain -- known as the E3 in the context of negotiations with Iran -- said in Friday&#39;s statement that &quot;it was right that the snapback mechanism had been triggered&quot;. &quot;Iran&#39;s nuclear program poses a serious threat to global peace and security,&quot; they added. In 2015, the United States, with the three European countries, Russia, and China concluded an agreement with Iran providing for the regulation of Iranian nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. President Donald Trump decided during his first term in 2018 to withdraw the United States from the deal and to reinstate US sanctions. In retaliation, Iran pulled back from some of its commitments, particularly on uranium enrichment. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran is the only country without a nuclear weapons programme to enrich uranium to 60 percent. That is close to the threshold of 90 percent required for a bomb, and well above the far lower level needed for civilian nuclear use.

Middle East

United Kingdom

Europe

Britain, France, and Germany announced plans to restart nuclear talks with Iran and the U.S. after UN sanctions were reimposed, urging renewed diplomacy to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons amid heightened regional tensions

UK, France, Germany aim to restart Iran nuclear talks

NEW YORK: Widespread UN sanctions against Iran returned into force late Saturday for the first time in a decade, after last-ditch nuclear talks with Western powers failed to produce a breakthrough. The sanctions, three months after Israel and the United States bombed Iran, bar dealings related to Tehran&#39;s nuclear and ballistic missiles program and are also expected to have wider effects on its troubled economy. European and US diplomats stressed immediately after the resumption of sanctions that diplomacy was not over. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Tehran to &quot;accept direct talks, held in good faith.&quot; He also called on UN member states to &quot;immediately&quot; implement sanctions to &quot;pressure Iran&#39;s leaders to do what is right for their nation, and best for the safety of the world.&quot; The British, French and German foreign ministers said in a joint statement they would continue to seek &quot;a new diplomatic solution to ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.&quot; They also called on Tehran &quot;to refrain from any escalatory action.&quot; Iran has allowed UN inspectors to return to its nuclear sites, but President Masoud Pezeshkian said the United States had offered only a short reprieve in return for handing over its whole stockpile of enriched uranium, a proposal he described as unacceptable. An 11th-hour effort by Iran allies Russia and China to postpone the sanctions until April failed to win enough votes in the Security Council on Friday, leading to the measures taking effect at midnight GMT Sunday, or 8 pm on Saturday in New York. Germany, which triggered the return of sanctions alongside Britain and France, had &quot;no choice&quot; as Iran was not complying with its obligations, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said. &quot;For us, it is imperative: Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon,&quot; he told the UN General Assembly. &quot;But let me emphasize: we remain open to negotiations on a new agreement. Diplomacy can and should continue.&quot; Russia made clear it would not enforce the sanctions, considering them invalid. The sanctions &quot;finally exposed the West&#39;s policy of sabotaging the pursuit of constructive solutions in the UN Security Council, as well as its desire to extract unilateral concessions from Tehran through blackmail and pressure,&quot; Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Iran has long contended that it is not seeking nuclear weapons. No longer just US sanctionsThe sanctions are a &quot;snapback&quot; of measures frozen in 2015 when Iran agreed to major restrictions on its nuclear program under a deal negotiated by former president Barack Obama. The United States already imposed massive sanctions, including trying to force all countries to shun Iranian oil, when President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in his first term. Iran and the United States had held several rounds of Omani-brokered talks earlier this year before they collapsed in June when first Israel and then the United States attacked Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran recalled its envoys from Britain, France and Germany for consultations on Saturday, state television reported. &quot;The current (economic) situation was already very difficult, but it&#39;s going to get worse,&quot; said an Iranian engineer who asked to be identified only by his first name Dariush. &quot;The impact of the renewed sanctions is already evident: the exchange rate is increasing, and this is leading to higher prices,&quot; the 50-year-old told AFP, lamenting a standard of living that is &quot;much lower&quot; than it was &quot;two or three years ago.&quot; The dollar was trading at around 1.12 million rials on the black market on Saturday, a record high according to several currency tracking websites. An AFP journalist at Tehran&#39;s Grand Bazaar saw brisk business at jewelry stores as people rushed to buy gold. Economic &#39;malaise&#39;The United States already enforces unilateral sanctions on Iran and has put huge pressure on third countries to stop buying Iranian oil, although China has defied it. Brussels-based think tank the International Crisis Group said Iran seemed dismissive of the renewed UN sanctions as it had already worked out how to cope with the US ones. But it noted that the snapback was not easy to reverse as it would require consensus at the Security Council. &quot;It is also likely to compound the malaise around an economy already struggling with high inflation, currency woes and deepening infrastructure problems,&quot; it said. In an address to the UN General Assembly on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged no delay in reinstating the sanctions. He also hinted that Israel was ready to take further military action after the 12 days of bombing that Iranian authorities say killed more than 1,000 people in June.&nbsp;

Portrait of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Asia

UN sanctions on Iran snap back after failed nuclear talks, three months after US and Israeli strikes. The measures target Tehran’s nuclear and missile programs, worsen its economic crisis, and leave diplomacy open but fragile.

Sweeping UN sanctions return to hit Iran after nuclear talks fail

Tehran: Iran and Russia signed a $25 billion deal to build nuclear power plants in the Islamic republic, Iranian state media reported Friday, just hours ahead of the likely return of sweeping UN sanctions on Iran. &quot;A deal for the construction of four nuclear power plants with a value of $25 billion in Sirik, Hormozgan was signed between the Iran Hormoz company and Rosatom,&quot; state television said. Iran has just one operational nuclear power plant in Bushehr in the south, with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts -- just a fraction of the country&#39;s energy needs. According to state news agency IRNA, each plant will have a capacity of 1,255 megawatts, though no details were provided on the timeline. The move comes as so-called snapback sanctions triggered by the European parties to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran are set to return by the end of Saturday. Britain, France and Germany triggered the sanctions last month, accusing of Iran of failing to adhere to its commitments under the agreement. At a Security Council session on Friday, China and Russia put forward a draft resolution to allow another half year for talks, but it is unlikely to garner enough support to pass. Western countries have long accused Iran of seeking an atomic bomb -- a charge Tehran vehemently denies, defending its right to a civilian nuclear programme. The United States in 2018 unilaterally pulled out of the nuclear accord with Iran, prompting Tehran to begin walking back its commitments. Talks between Washington and Tehran to strike a new deal were underway, before being derailed by unprecedented Israeli strikes on Iran in June that began a 12-day war briefly joined by the United States. Iran had previously signed with Russia a nuclear energy deal in 1993 allowing for the construction of the Bushehr plant, after Germany had abandoned it in the wake of the Islamic revolution of 1979.

Iran and Russia signed a $25 billion deal to build nuclear power plants in the Islamic republic.

Tehran, Moscow sign $25 bn deal to build nuclear plants in Iran: state media

Sweeping UN sanctions look likely to return on Iran despite a last-ditch effort on Friday by China and Russia for a delay to allow further talks, diplomats say. European powers were urging Iran to reverse a series of steps it took after Israel and the United States bombed its nuclear sites in June. Complaining that Iran has not complied with a landmark but moribund deal, the Europeans have triggered a return of sweeping UN sanctions &mdash; notably on its banking and oil sectors &mdash; that are set to take effect at the end of Saturday. China and Russia at a Security Council session on Friday put forward a draft resolution, seen by AFP, that would give another half year for talks, or until April 18, 2026. But diplomats said they did not expect it to receive the nine votes on the 15-member Security Council for passage. French President Emmanuel Macron met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday and said a deal was possible to avoid the sanctions but that Iran had only hours left. One diplomat, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said late Thursday that the Europeans believed they had &quot;done everything to try to move things&quot; but that Iran did not offer the desired flexibility. France &mdash; speaking for itself, Germany and Britain &mdash; has told Iran it must allow full access to UN nuclear inspectors, immediately resume nuclear negotiations and offer transparency on highly enriched uranium, the whereabouts of which has been the subject of speculation. &nbsp;&#39;Illegal and irresponsible&#39;&nbsp;The 2015 deal, negotiated during Barack Obama&#39;s presidency, lifted sanctions in return for Iran drastically scaling back its controversial nuclear work. President Donald Trump in his first term withdrew from the deal and imposed sweeping unilateral US sanctions, while pushing the Europeans to do likewise. The Chinese and Russian draft resolution, in a reference to the United States, would call on all initial parties to the deal to &quot;immediately resume negotiations.&quot; On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his British counterpart, Yvette Cooper, to discuss the row. Araghchi &quot;strongly criticized the position of the three European countries as unjustified, illegal and irresponsible,&quot; the Iranian foreign ministry said. Steve Witkoff, Trump&#39;s real estate friend and roving envoy who had been negotiating with Iran until Israel attacked, said on Wednesday that Iran was in a &quot;tough position&quot; but also held out hope for a solution. &quot;I think that we have no desire to hurt them. We have a desire, however, to either realize a permanent solution and negotiate around snapbacks,&quot; Witkoff told the Concordia summit on the sidelines of the General Assembly. &quot;If we can&#39;t, then snapbacks will be what they are. They&#39;re the right medicine,&quot; Witkoff said. Iran has long contended that it is not seeking nuclear weapons, pointing to an edict by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and US intelligence has not concluded that the country has decided to build a nuclear weapon. But Israel, the United States, and European countries have long been skeptical due to the country&#39;s advanced nuclear work, believing it could quickly pursue a bomb if it so decided. Standing at the General Assembly rostrum this week, Pezeshkian showed pictures of people killed in the 12-day Israeli military campaign against Iran in June, which Tehran says killed more than 1,000 people. The United States joined in the campaign on June 22, striking several of Iran&#39;s nuclear facilities.

Complaining that Iran has not complied with landmark but moribund deal, Europeans have triggered a return of sweeping UN sanctions that are set to take effect at the end of Saturday.



Iran sanctions look set to return after last-ditch UN vote

TEHRAN: Iran&#39;s top security body said Saturday that action by Britain, France and Germany to reimpose UN sanctions will &quot;effectively suspend&quot; its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.&nbsp;&quot;Despite the foreign ministry&#39;s cooperation with the (International Atomic Energy) Agency and the presentation of plans to resolve the issue, the actions of European countries will effectively suspend the path of cooperation with the agency,&quot; the Supreme National Security Council said in a televised statement.&nbsp;The announcement comes after the Security Council voted on Friday to reimpose frozen UN sanctions after the European governments activated the &quot;snapback&quot; mechanism in a decade-old nuclear agreement, accusing Iran of non-compliance.&nbsp;The vote means that the sanctions, which were suspended in return for curbs on Iran&#39;s nuclear activities set out in the 2015 deal, will take renewed effect on September 28 unless Iran can persuade the council to relent in the next week.&nbsp;Tehran said the action by the European powers undermined months of engagement with the IAEA aimed at resuming monitoring and ensuring compliance with international rules.&nbsp;Earlier this month, Iran and the IAEA reached an agreement in Cairo that would have allowed inspections of Iranian nuclear sites to resume.&nbsp;Iran had suspended them after Israel, and the United States attacked its nuclear facilities in June.&nbsp;Western governments have long accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapons capability, an ambition Tehran denies.&nbsp;Tehran has also criticized the IAEA for failing to condemn the Israeli and US strikes.&nbsp;The European governments have said they will not delay the reimposition of UN sanctions unless Iran resumes full cooperation with the IAEA and reopens nuclear talks with the United States, which have been suspended since June.

Iranian flag flies in front of a U.N. building 

The actions of European countries effectively suspend the path of cooperation with the agency, the Supreme National Security Council said in a televised statement.

Iran says cooperation with IAEA suspended after European move on UN sanctions

UNITED NATIONS: A U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at halting the reimposition of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program failed Friday after weeks of last-ditch diplomatic talks appeared to break down days before the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders. The resolution put forth by South Korea, the current president of the 15-member council, did not garner the support of the nine countries required to halt the series of sanctions from taking effect at the end of the month, as outlined in Iran&rsquo;s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Only four countries &mdash; China, Russia, Pakistan and Algeria &mdash; supported the effort, with some using the meeting to blast the European leaders for what they called an unjustified and illegal action against Iran. &ldquo;Their only goal now is to use the council as a tool for their bad faith play, as a lever to exert pressure on the state in favor of a state which is trying to defend its sovereign interests,&rdquo; Vassily Alekseevich Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador to the U.N., said ahead of the vote. France, Germany and the United Kingdom moved last month to trigger the &ldquo; snapback mechanism,&rdquo; which automatically reimposes all U.N. sanctions that were in effect before the nuclear deal. Those penalties included a conventional arms embargo, restrictions on ballistic missile development, asset freezes, travel bans and a ban on producing nuclear-related technology. The process is designed to be veto-proof unless the U.N.&#39;s most powerful body agrees to stop it. Over the last several weeks, intensified diplomacy between Iran and the European countries has taken place, but without a resolution so far and indications that sanctions were likely. When asked in an interview on Thursday on Israel&rsquo;s Channel 12 whether the &ldquo;snapback&rdquo; was a done deal, French President Emmanuel Macron said, &ldquo;Yes, I think so because the latest news we had from the Iranians are not serious.&rdquo; German and European Union leaders had warned Iran in a call on Wednesday that it had yet to take the necessary action to stop the reimposition of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, which is already reeling from a 12-day war and a decades-long financial crisis. &ldquo;The window for finding a diplomatic solution on Iran&rsquo;s nuclear issue is closing really fast,&rdquo; the EU&rsquo;s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said in a statement.&nbsp;&ldquo;Iran must show credible steps towards addressing the demands of France, U.K. and Germany, and this means demonstrating full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and allowing inspections of all nuclear sites without delay.&rdquo; In a statement issued hours later, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi again asserted that the reimposition of U.N. sanctions was &ldquo;lacking any legal or logical justification.&rdquo; He also pointed to the fact that Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog earlier reached a deal mediated by Egypt to grant the IAEA access to all&nbsp;Iranian nuclear sites and for Tehran to report on the whereabouts of all its nuclear material. Details of the agreement were not immediately released. In an address last week to his agency&rsquo;s board of governors in Vienna, IAEA Director Rafael Grossi said the document &ldquo;provides for a clear understanding for the procedures of inspection notifications and their implementation.&rdquo; The agreement &ldquo;includes all facilities and installations in Iran and it also contemplates the required reporting on all the attacked facilities including the nuclear material present at those,&rdquo; Grossi added, noting it will &ldquo;open the way for the respective inspections and access&rdquo; without specifying when that would happen. A 12-day war Israel launched against Iran in June saw both the Israelis and the Americans bomb Iranian nuclear sites, throwing into question the status of Tehran&rsquo;s stockpile of uranium enriched nearly to weapons-grade levels. Using the &ldquo;snapback&rdquo; mechanism will likely heighten tensions between Iran and the West. It&rsquo;s unclear how Iran will respond, given that in the past, officials have threatened to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, potentially following North Korea, which abandoned the treaty in 2003 and then built atomic weapons.

U.N. resolution to stop Iran sanctions snapback failed, clearing path for penalties as Europe cites nuclear deal violations and Tehran protests.

UN Security Council votes against lifting Iran 'snapback' sanctions ahead of deadline

VIENNA: Iran decided at the last-minute Thursday to withdraw a resolution prohibiting attacks on nuclear facilities that it had put forward along with China, Russia and other countries for a vote before an annual gathering of the UN nuclear watchdog&#39;s member nations.&nbsp;Western diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the US has been heavily lobbying behind the scenes to prevent the resolution from being adopted. The US has raised the possibility of reducing funding to the International Atomic Energy Agency if the resolution was adopted and if the body moved to curtail Israel&rsquo;s rights within the agency, the diplomats said.&nbsp;In 1981, the provision of assistance to Israel under the IAEA&rsquo;s technical assistance program was suspended as a result of an Israeli strike on a nuclear reactor in Iraq. At the time, the attack was strongly condemned in resolutions by the UN Security Council, the IAEA General Conference and the IAEA Board of Governors.&nbsp;The resolution withdrawal comes as US allies have started the clock on reimposing UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.&nbsp;Addressing the IAEA&#39;s General Conference late Thursday, Iran&rsquo;s Ambassador to the UN Reza Najafi announced that &ldquo;guided by the spirit of goodwill and constructive engagement, and at the request of several member states,&rdquo; it deferred action on the draft until next year&#39;s conference.&nbsp;Tensions after June attackIsrael targeted Iranian nuclear and military sites in June, saying it could not allow Tehran to develop atomic weapons and that it feared the Islamic Republic was close. The US inserted itself into the war on June 22, striking three Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.&nbsp;The text of Iran&rsquo;s draft resolution contained a paragraph that &ldquo;strongly condemned&rdquo; the &ldquo;deliberate and unlawful attacks carried out in June 2025 against nuclear sites and facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran,&rdquo; adding that it constituted a &ldquo;clear violation of international law.&rdquo;&nbsp;It also &ldquo;reaffirmed&rdquo; that &ldquo;all states must refrain from attacking or threatening to attack peaceful nuclear facilities in other countries.&rdquo;&nbsp;Najafi said the objective by Iran and the other cosponsors of the resolution &mdash; including Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Belarus and Zimbabwe &mdash; &ldquo;has never been to create division among member states,&rdquo; adding that &ldquo;on matters of such importance and sensitivity, it is imperative that the general conference conveys a unified and unambiguous message.&rdquo;&nbsp;He added, &ldquo;We firmly believe that the voice of this body should not be distorted under the weight of the intimidation and political pressure exerted by one of the aggressors.&rdquo;&nbsp;Speaking at the IAEA General Conference earlier this week, the head of Iran&rsquo;s civilian atomic energy organization, Mohammad Eslami, said he expected IAEA member states to &ldquo;take appropriate measures in response to these unlawful attacks on nuclear facilities.&rdquo;&nbsp;He said the &ldquo;recent threats made by the United States in this regard, as well as the exertion of political pressure on countries and the instrumental use of the Agency in various forms, including through influence on its budget, are matters of serious concern.&rdquo;&nbsp;Howard Solomon, the US charge d&rsquo;affaires and acting permanent representative at the US Mission to International Organizations in Vienna, said the draft resolution &ldquo;painted a deeply inaccurate picture of recent events, distorted international law and selectively quoted from the IAEA statute and other documents adopted by the IAEA General Conference and UN, taking them out of context and drawing inaccurate conclusions.&rdquo;&nbsp;Had the resolution been put to a vote, &ldquo;it would have been overwhelmingly defeated,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;Solomon said that &ldquo;the grave and growing threat to Israel and the region created by Iran&rsquo;s enrichment program necessitated strong and decisive action directed by President Trump,&rdquo; adding that the US did not &ldquo;take this action lightly.&rdquo;&nbsp;A request for comment has been sent to the US State Department and the US Mission to the International Organizations in Vienna.&nbsp;Looming deadlineThe IAEA General Conference consists of high-ranking representatives of the 180 members states of the UN nuclear watchdog who debate issues of international nuclear policy. It meets annually in Vienna, approves the budget and considers resolutions on nuclear safety and security issues.&nbsp;The meeting came at a sensitive time, with France, Germany and the United Kingdom launching the process to reimpose sanctions on Iran over what they deemed noncompliance with a 2015 agreement aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.&nbsp;The process, termed a &ldquo;snapback&rdquo; by the diplomats who negotiated it into Iran&rsquo;s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, was designed to be veto-proof at the UN and could take effect in a month.&nbsp;The move set a 30-day clock for the resumption of sanctions unless the West and Iran reach a diplomatic agreement.&nbsp;European nations have said they would be willing to extend the deadline if Iran resumes direct negotiations with the US over its nuclear program, allows UN nuclear inspectors access to its nuclear sites, and accounts for the more than 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium the UN watchdog says it has.&nbsp;When asked in an interview on Israel&rsquo;s Channel 12 on Thursday whether the snapback was a done deal, French President Emmanuel Macron said: &ldquo;Yes. I think so because the latest news we had from the Iranians is not serious.&rdquo;

Western diplomats say the US lobbied hard to block Iran’s resolution, even threatening to cut IAEA funding if it targeted Israel’s rights in the agency.

Iran withdraws resolution banning attacks on nuclear sites following US pressure

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will vote Friday on reimposing deep economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. Britain, France, and Germany -- signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action intended to stop Tehran obtaining nuclear weapons -- allege that Iran has broken its promises under that 2015 treaty. Diplomatic sources expect that the resolution will not have the nine votes needed to uphold the status quo -- in which sanctions remain lifted -- and as such, the punishment will be reimposed. Letter to UNFrench President Emmanuel Macron said he expected international sanctions against Iran to be reinstated by the end of the month, in an excerpt from an Israeli television interview broadcast Thursday. &quot;The latest news we had from the Iranians are not serious,&quot; he said. In a letter to the UN in mid-August, the &quot;European Three&quot; slammed Iran as having breached several JCPOA commitments, including building up a uranium stock to more than 40 times the level permitted under the deal. Despite a flurry of diplomatic talks between the European powers and Tehran, the Western trio insisted there was no concrete progress. Nine votesRussia and China, which oppose the reinstatement of sanctions, would need to secure nine votes from the 15 members of the Council -- which diplomatic sources say may prove impossible. &quot;Algeria and Pakistan may support Russia and China in backing the resolution, but I think other members are likely to oppose it or abstain, so the Europeans and US will not have to use their veto,&quot; said International Crisis Group analyst Richard Gowan. The vote could result in the imposition of sanctions as early as next week -- although the UN&#39;s annual high-level meeting, which Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will attend, could present opportunities for last-ditch negotiations. &quot;The Council still has time to greenlight a further resolution extending the suspension of sanctions -- if Iran and the Europeans reach a last-minute bargain,&quot; Gowan said. Last minute bargain? The hard-won 2015 deal has been left in tatters ever since the United States, during Donald Trump&#39;s first presidency, walked away from it in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran. Western powers and Israel have long accused Tehran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, a claim Iran denies. The 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June derailed Tehran&#39;s nuclear negotiations with the United States.

The UN Security Council will vote on reimposing sanctions on Iran for allegedly breaching its 2015 nuclear deal commitments. Western powers seek penalties, while Russia and China oppose.

Articles tagged with "Iran nuclear deal"