Nuclear diplomacy with Iran is set to resume this week, with talks scheduled for Tuesday in Geneva between Tehran and three European powers — Britain, France and Germany — alongside representatives of the European Union. Iranian state television confirmed the meeting late Monday, describing it as a deputy foreign ministers–level dialogue aimed at salvaging what remains of the 2015 nuclear deal.
The session will be the second round of discussions since Iran’s 12-day war with Israel in June, a conflict that drew the United States into direct military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. The first postwar meeting took place in Istanbul on July 25, but ended without progress. Diplomats say Geneva will test whether there is any appetite left on either side to restore the deal.
Tensions remain raw. In the aftermath of the war, Tehran suspended cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, accusing the watchdog of failing to condemn Israeli and U.S. attacks on its facilities. That rupture has further complicated negotiations with Washington, already derailed by years of mistrust.
European officials, frustrated by Iran’s expanding uranium enrichment, have warned that they could trigger the accord’s “snapback mechanism,” which would reinstate United Nations sanctions lifted under the agreement. Iran disputes the legality of such a move, insisting that Britain, France and Germany failed to meet their own commitments under the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
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The landmark 2015 agreement once promised sanctions relief in exchange for strict limits on Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran has always maintained is civilian in nature. But after President Donald J. Trump pulled the United States out of the accord in 2018 and reimposed crushing sanctions, Iran began abandoning its own obligations, steadily enriching uranium beyond the limits set in the deal.
While London, Paris and Berlin vowed to keep the pact alive, their mechanism to shield European companies from U.S. penalties faltered, leaving Iran isolated and its economy battered by inflation. A deadline for activating the snapback clause looms in October, though European officials, according to the Financial Times, may extend it if Iran resumes talks with Washington and reopens its doors to IAEA inspectors.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, dismissed that possibility, insisting the Europeans “have no right” to invoke the clause.