Tehran recalls its envoys in Britain, France and Germany for consultations, after three nations triggered mechanism
\n new york
\nIran was set to come under sweeping UN sanctions late Saturday for the first time in a decade \u2014 barring an unexpected last-minute breakthrough \u2014 after nuclear talks with the West floundered.
\nThe UN nuclear watchdog on Friday said that inspectors had been allowed to return to Iranian sites, but Western powers did not see enough progress to agree to a delay after a week of top-level diplomacy at the UN General Assembly.
\nEuropean powers set the clock ticking a month ago for the \u201csnapback\u201d of the UN sanctions, accusing Iran of failing to come clean on its nuclear program \u2014 including through countermeasures it took in response to Israeli and US bombing.
\nIran on Saturday recalled its envoys in Britain, France and Germany for consultations, after the three European countries triggered the mechanism, Iranian state television said.
\nThe sanctions are set to go into effect at 0000 GMT on Sunday (8:00pm on Saturday in New York).
\nThey will set up a global ban on working with companies, people and organisations accused of developing Iran\u2019s nuclear program or ballistic missiles.
\nIranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said there was no reason to reach a deal when, in his view, Israel and the United States were seeking to use the pressure to topple the Islamic republic.
\n\u201cIf the goal had been to resolve concerns on the nuclear program, we could easily do that,\u201d Pezeshkian told reporters, as he insisted again that Iran will never pursue nuclear weapons.
\nPezeshkian, who met during the week with French President Emmanuel Macron, said France had proposed that Iran give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium in return for a one-month delay in the return of sanctions.
\n\u201cWhy would we put ourselves in such a trap and have a noose around our neck each month?\u201d he said.
\nHe accused the United States of pressing the Europeans not to reach a compromise.
\nSteve Witkoff, Trump\u2019s friend and roving negotiator, had said that the United States does not want to hurt Iran and was open to further talks.
\nBut Pezeshkian charged that Witkoff lacked seriousness, saying he had backtracked on agreements during earlier talks \u2014 which abruptly stopped when Israel launched its military campaign.
\nNo Russia enforcement
\nThe sanctions are aimed at imposing new economic pain to pressure Iran, but it remains to be seen if all countries will enforce them.
\nRussian deputy ambassador Dmitry Polyansky said Friday that Moscow, a top partner of Iran, considered the reimposition of sanctions \u201cnull and void.\u201d
\nRussia and China sought at the Security Council Friday to delay the reimposition of sanctions until April but failed to muster enough votes.
\nThe United States already has unilateral sanctions on Iran and has tried to force all other countries to stop buying Iranian oil, although companies from China have defied the pressure.
\nTrump imposed a \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign during his first term when he withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated under former president Barack Obama, which had offered sanctions relief in return for drastic curbs on Iran\u2019s nuclear program.
\nThe new sanctions mark a \u201csnapback\u201d of the UN measures that were suspended under the 2015 deal, which had been strongly supported by Britain, France and Germany after Trump\u2019s withdrawal.
\nThe International Crisis Group, which studies conflict resolution, said in a report that Iran seemed dismissive of the snapback as it had already learned to cope with the US sanctions.
\nBut it noted that the snapback was not easy to reverse as it would require consensus at the Security Council.
\n\u201cIt is also likely to compound the malaise around an economy already struggling with high inflation, currency woes and deepening infrastructure problems,\u201d the report said.
\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a defiant UN address Friday urged no delay in the snapback and hinted that Israel was willing to again strike Iran\u2019s nuclear program, after the 12 days of bombing in June that Iranian authorities say killed more than 1,000 people.
\nPezeshkian said that Iran would not retaliate against the sanctions by leaving the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, warning that unnamed powers were seeking a \u201csuperficial pretext to set the region ablaze.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tehran recalls its envoys in Britain, France and Germany for consultations, after three nations triggered mechanism new york Iran was set to come under sweeping UN sanctions late Saturday for the first time in a decade \u2014 barring an unexpected last-minute breakthrough \u2014 after nuclear talks with the West floundered. The UN nuclear watchdog on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-505447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n