By Jennifer Hansler, Lauren Kent

(CNN) — France, Germany and the United Kingdom have begun the process to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

The triggering of the so-called snapback sanctions, a move that the United States welcomed on Thursday, comes as diplomatic efforts to restrain Iran’s growing nuclear program have faltered. Tehran has condemned the move and warned there could be consequences for reimplementing sanctions.

The “E3” countries notified the UN Security Council Thursday that they were triggering the snapback mechanism, which would reimpose all UN sanctions that had been previously lifted in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The mechanism was included as part of that agreement, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA).

Iran has increasingly breached the nuclear deal after President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the agreement in 2018.

“Today, Iran’s non-compliance with the JCPoA is clear and deliberate, and sites of major proliferation concern in Iran are outside of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) monitoring,” the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK said in a joint statement on Thursday. “Iran has no civilian justification for its high enriched uranium stockpile.”

“Its nuclear programme therefore remains a clear threat to international peace and security,” the statement added.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the move Thursday, calling it a “provocative and unnecessary escalation” that would be met with “appropriate responses.” The ministry said in a statement that the E3 decision “will severely undermine the ongoing process of Iran’s interactions and cooperation” with the IAEA.

Iran has spent decades developing its nuclear program, which it maintains is solely for peaceful energy purposes. The country has said it plans to build additional nuclear power plants to meet domestic energy needs and free up more oil for export.

Nuclear plants require uranium – and according to the UN nuclear watchdog, no other country has the kind of uranium that Iran currently does without also having a nuclear weapons program.

Under the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to restrictions on its centrifuges, dramatically reduce its uranium stockpile, and keep its uranium enrichment levels at no more than 3.67%, down from near 20%. It also agreed to more international inspections of its nuclear facilities. In exchange, Tehran received billions of dollars’ worth of sanctions relief.

But Iran has significantly ramped up its uranium enrichment program since the Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear agreement in 2018. Tehran started with about 150kg of uranium enriched to 3.6% – which is sufficient for nuclear reactors and a peaceful nuclear program – and now has 50 times its 2018 level.

30-day process

The snapback process takes 30 days, giving Tehran a window to take action to stop the reimposition of the sanctions. The ability to trigger the snapback sanctions expires in October 2025, which prompted the E3 to do so now.

“It’s not a decision that has been taken at all lightly,” a British official said Thursday. The official said the E3 made the decision due to Iran’s “significant noncompliance” with the 2015 deal, its highly enriched uranium stockpiles, and what they described as a lack of “sufficient response on the Iranian side” to reach a diplomatic agreement.

“We don’t think it’s the end of diplomacy, and we remain committed to a negotiated solution,” the official said.

In a letter to the president of the UN Security Council on Thursday, the foreign ministers of the E3 countries wrote that they “will continue to strive to resolve the issue of Iran’s significant non-performance, and affirm that if this issue is resolved before the end of the 30-day period… the E3 will inform the Security Council accordingly.”

“We therefore urge Iran to engage in constructive diplomacy to resolve the concerns associated with its nuclear programme,” they wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by CNN.

In the European countries’ joint statement, the foreign ministers emphasized that the measures for sanctions and other restrictive measures “are not new.” The measures were previously agreed upon by the UN Security Council and “lifted in light of Iran’s commitments under the JCPoA,” according to the statement.

“However, Iran has chosen not to abide by those commitments,” the joint statement added.

The head of the IAEA on Thursday expressed optimism for renewed inspections, saying, “I think there will be positive elements on the table that perhaps could help avert this possibility of this wide-ranging sanctions.”

“Now there is a period of one month which I think we should take advantage of… The IAEA can establish a good mechanism to return to the places and especially to verify or to check what happened with the material, with the 60 percent highly enriched uranium,” Rafael Grossi told CNN’s Becky Anderson.

Nuclear inspectors returned to Iran this week for the first time since the Israel-Iran conflict in June that saw both Israel and the United States bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, but Grossi confirmed that no formal agreement has been hashed out to allow the inspectors to carry out their work with broad access.

The United States welcomed the move by the E3 to trigger the snapback sanctions while saying it was ready for fresh diplomacy.

“I urge Iranian leaders to take the immediate steps necessary to ensure that their nation will never obtain a nuclear weapon; to walk the path of peace; and to, by extension, advance prosperity for the Iranian people,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, also welcomed the snapback, calling it an important step toward stopping the country’s nuclear program and increasing pressure on the Iranian regime.

That comes after Israel launched heavy airstrikes against at least one of Iran’s enrichment sites in June, and fired more targeted strikes on Tehran to decapitate the regime’s military leadership.

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