BERLIN: European powers plan fresh talks with Iran on its nuclear programme in the coming days, the first since the US attacked Iranian nuclear facilities a month ago, a German diplomatic source said on Sunday.

Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, “are in contact with Iran to schedule further talks for the coming week”, the source claimed.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that Tehran had agreed to hold talks with the three European countries, citing an unnamed source. Consultations are ongoing regarding a date and location for the talks, it added.

“Iran must never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon. That is why Germany, France and the United Kingdom are continuing to work intensively in the E3 format to find a sustainable and verifiable diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear programme,” the German source said.

Putin meets top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader

Israel and Western nations have long accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran has consistently denied.

Strikes derailed talks

On June 13, Israel launched a wave of surprise strikes on its regional nemesis, targeting key military and nuclear facilities. Nine days later, the US launched its own set of strikes against Iran’s nuclear programme, hitting the uranium enrichment facility at Fordo, in Qom province south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz.

Iran and the United States had held several rounds of nuclear negotiations through Omani mediators before Israel launched its 12-day war against Iran. However, US President Donald Trump’s decision to join Israel in striking Iranian nuclear facilities effectively ended the talks.

The E3 countries last met the Iranian representatives in Geneva on June 21, just one day before the US strikes.

Kremlin meeting

On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a surprise meeting in the Kremlin with Ali Larijani, top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader on nuclear issues.

Mr Larijani “conveyed assessments of the escalating situation in the Middle East and around the Iranian nuclear programme”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the unannounced meeting.

Putin had expressed Russia’s “well-known positions on how to stabilise the situation in the region and on the political settlement of the Iranian nuclear programme”, he added.

Moscow has a cordial relationship with Iran’s clerical leadership and provides crucial backing for Tehran but did not swing forcefully behind its partner even after the US joined Israel’s bombing campaign.

Snapback mechanism

While Iran and six world powers struck a deal in 2015 called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which placed significant restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, but the United States during Trump’s first presidency walked away from it.

European countries, however, recently threatened to trigger the deal’s “snapback” mechanism, which allows the re-imposition of sanctions in the event of non-compliance by Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi after a call with his European counterparts said the Western allies had no grounds for reactivating sanctions. “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 ‘snap-back’ for which they (have) absolutely no moral (or) legal grounds,” Araghchi said on X.

But the German source insisted, “Snapback remains an option for the E3 if no solution is reached over the summer.”

Last week, Iran made it clear that there would be no new nuclear talks with the United States if they were conditioned on Tehran abandoning its uranium enrichment activities.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2025