Axios: US and Europe Set Deadline for Iran Nuclear Deal

The United States and Europe have set a deadline for Iran to finalise a nuclear deal, warning that Tehran will face tough sanctions otherwise.

According to sources cited by Axios, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom agreed during a phone call on July 14 to set the end of August as the target date for reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran.

If no agreement is reached by that deadline, the three European countries plan to trigger the Snapback mechanism. This will automatically reinstate all UN Security Council sanctions against Iran that were lifted under the 2015 agreement.

The process to activate Snapback takes 30 days, and European officials aim to complete it before Russia assumes the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council in October.

Iran, for its part, claims there are no legal grounds for re-imposing sanctions and has threatened to withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in response.

By Vugar Khalilov