Germany, France and the United Kingdom are likely to start the process of reimposing UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program on Thursday, three European officials told CNN Wednesday. The snapback process, included as part of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, takes 30 days to complete. The officials said it is the hope that Tehran will take action to stop the reimposition of the sanctions during that window – that it will engage seriously in diplomatic negotiations about its nuclear program and allow international inspections of its facilities. Iran has threatened harsh consequences if the snapback sanctions are triggered. Reuters first reported that the process would likely begin Thursday. Tehran has grown its nuclear program, which it says is for peaceful purposes, far beyond the restrictions put forward by the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) after the United States withdrew from the landmark agreement during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term. “Going back to the original JCPOA would be almost impossible,” Rafael Grossi, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Wednesday. Diplomatic efforts by officials from the E3 countries – Germany, France, and the U.K. – to revive negotiations in recent days did not yield significant results, sources said. The ability for members to trigger snapback sanctions expires in October. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke with his E3 counterparts on Wednesday, had called the snapback provision “a very powerful piece of leverage on the Iranian regime.” The E3 told the UN they would move to reimpose sanctions through what’s known as the ‘snapback’ mechanism if Iran continues to violate its obligations under the 2015 deal. Inspectors back in Iran Inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog have returned to Iran, the head of the agency and Iranian officials said, despite an Iranian ban on co-operation with it. Grossi, the director general of that watchdog agency, said that inspectors were at the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Wednesday. “Today we are inspecting Bushehr,” Grossi told reporters in Washington, D.C. “We are continuing the conversation so that we can go to all places, including the facilities that have been attacked.” Grossi acknowledged legislation passed by Iran’s parliament halting co-operation with the agency in response to the U.S.-Israeli strikes. However, he noted that “the IAEA and Iran are bound by one thing, which is the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), because they are part of that agreement, and a safeguards agreement.” “This safeguards agreement is what dictates what we do, how we do it and where we do it that cannot be changed, unless Iran decides to leave the NPT,” he explained. An Iranian official told CNN last week that withdrawal from the NPT is under consideration if snapback sanctions are triggered. They said other options include putting more limitations on Tehran’s co-operation with the IAEA. “Don’t forget that there is still time, even if there is the triggering thing, there is a month, and many things could happen,” Grossi said Wednesday when asked about Tehran’s threats. Ahead of the 12-day conflict, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff had been in active diplomatic conversations to try to secure a new nuclear deal with Iran. However, those discussions were curtailed by the war. Grossi, who met with Rubio and Witkoff, said Wednesday that he believes the U.S. is “open to dialogue, of course, provided that this is meaningful and it leads to concrete agreements.” In June, Israel launched strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, sparking an unprecedented 12-day military conflict and prompting Iranian retaliatory attacks on Israeli cities. The United States also joined, striking three Iranian sites in the conflict’s final days. The IAEA withdrew its team from Iran in July after parliament passed a law halting co-operation with the agency in response to the U.S.-Israeli strikes. Grossi said the inspectors withdrew because inspections were “not possible” due to “wartime.” Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf confirmed the return of UN inspectors during a parliament session Wednesday, Iranian state media said. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the inspectors were allowed to monitor fuel replacement at the Bushehr nuclear power plant following a decision by the country’s Supreme National Security Council. Araghchi denied that an agreement was reached on “new co-operation” between Iran and the IAEA, according to a post on his Telegram channel. During the conflict, Iran accused the IAEA of giving Israel a pretext to attack by releasing a report declaring Tehran was not complying with its safeguard obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons through strict inspections of nuclear sites. Israel launched its attack a day before Iran and the U.S. were set to hold a round of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program. Talks have since stopped, with no clear timeline for resumption. Kamran Ghazanfari, a member of Iran’s parliament, criticized comments by Ghalibaf in Wednesday’s legislative session, which suggested that the government could allow inspectors to enter the Bushehr nuclear plant and a Tehran research site. The lawmaker said the decision would be an “explicit violation” of the law “obliging the government to suspend co-operation with the agency.” On Tuesday, Iranian negotiators met with representatives from France, Germany and the United Kingdom in Geneva in an attempt to avert the reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran.
