Iran urges Europe to abandon failed pressure tactics

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
18 Jul 2025 13:22

Iran warns that future nuclear talks hinge on Western willingness to abandon coercive tactics and commit to fair and reciprocal diplomacy.

Listen

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends the 17th annual BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 7, 2025. (AP)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has firmly rejected Western narratives surrounding the collapse of nuclear negotiations, placing full responsibility on the United States for both the unraveling of the 2015 nuclear agreement and the recent failure to revive diplomacy.

In a statement shared on X, Araghchi revealed on Friday that he held a joint teleconference with the foreign ministers of the E3, France, Germany, and the UK, alongside the European Union’s High Representative. He emphasized that Iran has remained committed to dialogue, while it is Washington that has consistently undermined diplomatic progress.

I had a joint teleconference with E3 FMs & EU HR last night, in which I made the following points clear:

It was the US that withdrew from a two-year negotiated deal -coordinated by EU in 2015- not Iran; and it was US that left the negotiation table in June this year and chose a… pic.twitter.com/NFQdK2HZD4
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) July 18, 2025

"It was the US that withdrew from a two-year negotiated deal, coordinated by the EU in 2015, not Iran," Araghchi stated, adding, "And it was the US that left the negotiation table in June this year and chose a military option instead."

His remarks reflect Tehran’s deepening frustration with what it views as the West’s bad-faith approach, one marked by double standards, unilateralism, and coercive diplomacy. Iran maintains that it has upheld its end of the nuclear bargain, while the US, and by extension its European allies, have repeatedly violated the spirit and letter of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Araghchi, one of the key architects of the original JCPOA, reiterated that Iran is open to a balanced and constructive agreement. However, any future negotiations, he insisted, must be based on mutual respect and equity. He also slammed ongoing efforts to revive the so-called snap-back mechanism, designed to reimpose UN sanctions, as legally and morally indefensible.

"If the EU and E3 want to play a constructive role, they must abandon the worn-out playbook of threats and pressure," Araghchi said, calling for a complete reset in European engagement.

Iran will not yield to snapback threats: Iran FM advisor: Exclusive

In a related context, Raouf Sheibani, the Iranian Foreign Minister's special envoy for West Asia, has firmly rejected on Wednesday the Western pressure to accept a revised nuclear deal.

In an interview for Al Mayadeen, he stated, "Iran will not back down in the face of any Western pressure or threats to activate the snapback mechanism."

His remarks follow coordinated efforts by the E3 countries, France, Germany, and the UK, which, in a recent joint call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, set an end-of-August deadline for Iran to agree to new nuclear terms. The move, Axios reported, is designed to allow enough time to reimpose UN sanctions through the JCPOA's snapback mechanism before Russia assumes the rotating presidency of the Security Council in October.

Despite acknowledging that diplomacy remains the preferred path, Sheibani stressed that Tehran is "prepared for all scenarios" should negotiations collapse.

Citing the recent twelve-day war, he criticized the West's reliance on coercion, saying, "Western military pressure during the twelve-day war yielded no results, and any other form of pressure will not force Iran to retreat."

The snapback mechanism, originally embedded in the 2015 nuclear deal, permits the automatic reimposition of international sanctions without a new UN vote.

Yet, Sheibani dismissed its relevance, saying, "Activating the snapback mechanism by the Europeans will be futile. Iran has endured the harshest American and European sanctions for years, and any future sanctions will be no different from the previous ones."

These positions echo warnings from other Iranian officials, who have indicated that triggering the snapback may push Iran to exit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entirely, after already halting all cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and expelling its inspectors earlier this month in response to Israeli and US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites.