NEW YORK, September 10. /TASS/. The Eurotroika nations, Great Britain, Germany and France, are likely to apply a snap-back mechanism of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran, despite a Tehran-IAEA deal to resume cooperation, The Wall Street Journal correspondent Lawrence Norman reported citing sources.

"I understand that the European view is that Tuesday’s agreement is very UNLIKELY to shift the plans on SnapBack. The Europeans see the absence of clear timelines and deadlines as a major problem — effectively guaranteeing nothing. Not only is there no deadline per diplomats on when inspectors get back to the damaged nuclear sites, there is no deadline or timeline on Iran’s submitting of the special reports on Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan and stockpile. It’s also not clear IAEA will get access to stockpile. As one source said: it’s not clear that the agreement commits Iran to anything significant," he wrote on X.

On September 9, Iran and the IAEA signed an agreement to resume cooperation, which was suspended after IAEA failed to condemn Israel and US’ attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said after signing the document, it does not imply the resumption of agency inspectors' access to them. He added that any decision on inspections is made by the country's Supreme National Security Council.

Earlier, Britain, Germany and France said they plan to launch the snapback mechanism, which will resume the UN Security Council sanctions against Tehran, lifted on the basis of the 2015 agreements, if Iran does not agree to a new nuclear deal involving a reduction to zero of uranium enrichment. Iran rejected this demand and threatened to withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons if sanctions resume.

The European countries will be able to activate this mechanism on October 18 after the expiration of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which legally established the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program.

In 2015, Iran and the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Russia, the United States, and France signed the JCPOA, ending the crisis that began in 2002 after Western accusations of Tehran developing nuclear weapons. But in 2018, US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement and reinstated all US sanctions against Iran. In response, in 2020, Tehran reduced its JCPOA obligations and limited access of IAEA inspectors to nuclear facilities. However, the agency continued inspections until the Iran-Israel escalation in June 2025.