Triggering of Snapback Mechanism Against Iran

France, Britain, and Germany have initiated the activation of the snapback mechanism, which will result in the re-imposition of United Nations sanctions on Iran.

The three European countries of France, Britain, and Germany began on Thursday, August 28, a 30-day process of restoring UN sanctions against Iran. This action was taken due to Tehran’s failure to fulfill its nuclear commitments and with the aim of limiting Iran’s access to nuclear weapons.

The European troika stated in a declaration: “We are committed to using all diplomatic tools to prevent Iran from accessing nuclear weapons. This includes our decision today to activate the automatic snapback mechanism for sanctions through this statement.”

European countries have accused Iran of violating the 2015 nuclear agreement, an accord aimed at preventing Tehran from producing nuclear weapons. Although the activation of the snapback mechanism was only possible until mid-October, circumstances including the beginning of Russia’s rotating presidency of the UN Security Council (Iran’s ally) and the 30-day process for restoring sanctions justified accelerating this decision.

It should be noted that the latest round of negotiations between European countries and Iran took place on Tuesday, but these talks did not result in any concrete outcome. The European proposal was to delay the return of sanctions for up to six months, conditional on full UN inspections being carried out and the resumption of negotiations between Iran and the United States.

The foreign ministers of France, Britain, and Germany informed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio of their decision on Wednesday and expressed hope that Iran would engage in constructive diplomatic interaction by the end of September and comply with its nuclear commitments.

In response, Iran had previously warned that it would deliver a “strong response” in case of the return of sanctions. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said today in response to telephone calls from the foreign ministers of the three European countries and the EU’s foreign policy chief: “To preserve and protect our national rights and interests, we will respond appropriately to this illegal and unjustified action.”

The process of restoring UN sanctions will take 30 days, after which sanctions will be imposed on Iran’s financial, banking, energy, and defense sectors.

The economic impact of this decision was also evident in Iran’s domestic markets; the value of the rial declined against major world currencies. The U.S. dollar traded at 102,350 tomans and the euro at 119,000 tomans in today’s transactions. This trend, beginning on Wednesday with increased likelihood of snapback mechanism activation, caused the dollar to cross the 100,000 toman mark for the second time. The first time this occurred was five months ago, when Donald Trump’s return to the White House and escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington led to an increase in the dollar’s price.