UK, France and Germany will reportedly hold nuclear talks with Iran in the near future

The European E3 countries, consisting of the UK, France and Germany, will reportedly hold new nuclear talks with Iran in the near future according to an unnamed German diplomatic source.

 “The E3 are in contact with Iran to schedule further talks for the coming week,” the German diplomatic source told the news outlet Associated Foreign Press (AFP). 

The Iranian regime-controlled Tasnim news agency also confirmed that there are planned talks with the three European powers. 

“Tehran and the European troika have come to an agreement in principle on the resumption of the talks about Iran’s nuclear program, but the timing and location of the negotiations are under debate,” Tasnim reported. 

The reports of renewed nuclear talks come after the European countries recently warned that they would reinstate snapback sanctions on Iran if no nuclear agreement is reached by the end of August. The United States appears to back the European decision on potential new sanctions if Tehran refuses to reach a new nuclear agreement. 

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot argued that Paris finds it “justified in reapplying global embargoes on arms, banks, and nuclear equipment that were lifted 10 years ago. Without a firm, tangible, and verifiable commitment from Iran, we will do so by the end of August at the latest.” 

The French top diplomat emphasized that the Iranian regime has violated the 2015 nuclear agreement by enriching uranium at 60%, which is close to military level. 

“It's a fact: Iran violated the obligations it took 10 years ago during negotiations,” Barrot stated. 

Barrot and his British and German counterparts recently held their first call with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi since Israel’s Operation Rising Lion military offensive against Iran’s military and nuclear facilities in June. The U.S. also bombed Iran’s main nuclear sites of Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. 

Iran’s foreign minister rejected the European warnings to renew sanctions on Tehran. 

“If EU/E3 want to have a role, they should act responsibly, and put aside the worn-out policies of threat and pressure, including the ‘snapback’ for which they lack absolutely [any] moral and legal ground,” Araghchi said. 

However, the Iranian regime’s negotiating position has been significantly weakened following the Israeli and American strikes on Iran’s critical military and nuclear assets. Israel also decapitated most of Iran’s top military leadership. 

Israel has urged the European countries to reinstate the sanctions on Iran before the formal deadline. 

“All the previous excuses not to trigger the snapback no longer apply,” an anonymous senior Israeli source stated. “They used to argue that Iran would escalate uranium enrichment from 60% to 90% if we acted – but that’s no longer relevant."

Meanwhile, the Iranian Defah Press news agency reported on Sunday that Tehran had allegedly replaced its air defenses that were destroyed by the Israeli Air Force. The report quoted Mahmoud Mousavi, the Iranian army’s deputy head for operations. 

However, there are no independent sources that can verify this claim. Given the fact that Israel had virtually full aerial supremacy in Iranian airspace including over the capital Tehran just a month ago, it is highly unlikely that Iranian authorities have already restored its severely destroyed aerial defenses in such a short time period.