Europe moves to reimpose 'snapback' Iran nuclear sanctions

Far more than food is needed to save Gaza's children, the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the largest independent aid organizations in Gaza, has said. 

Thousands of children in Gaza are wasting away every month at risk of death, NRC spokesperson Ahmed Byram said in an interview with DW. 

But giving them "a bag of bread or a bowl of rice" won't make them healthy again.

"This needs long term medical intervention that goes beyond providing basic nutrition," he said. 

Asked about Israel's denial of famine in Gaza, Byram said that the pictures coming out of the Gaza Strip were "very clear about what is happening there."

"We are hearing these stories every day," he said. "We are seeing them in the clinics, of children wasting away, of children dying."

Israel's military said it struck at Houthi militants in the Yemeni captial of Sanaa, the second IDF strike on the city in the last few days. 

"STRUCK: A Houthi terrorist regime military target in Sanaa, Yemen," the IDF wrote in a short post online.

Residents told the Reuters news agency the attacks struck an area near the presidential complex and a building in southern Sanaa. 

The attack followed Israel reporting earlier on Thursday that it had intercepted two drones originating from Yemen. 

"Whoever raises a hand against Israel — his hand will be cut off," Defense Minister Israel Katz said. 

Israeli sources speaking to news outlets like Reuters off the record said the strike targeted locations where senior Houthi officials had gathered to watch a televised speech by leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, while Houthi sources rejected this.

Israel also struck the capital — under Houthi control for more than a decade now — on Sunday, saying that was in retaliation for rockets fired at it from Yemen. Authorities in Yemen reported 10 dead.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to extend the UNIFIL international peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, but only until the end of 2026, when its activities are now scheduled to cease.

The Security Council approved the motion to extend the mandate of the mission, first established in 1978, "for a final time." At the end of 2026, the operation is now scheduled to begin a year-long "orderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal." 

The resolution had been adopted by France, after reaching a compromise with the US to allow for the mission's extension, but to declare that another such extension would not be granted. 

Acting US ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea, said it would be the last time the veto-holding US would approve an extension of the UNIFIL mission. 

In future, Lebanon's government and army is envisioned taking sole responsibility in southern Lebanon and around the site of the dispute de facto border with Israel known as the Blue Line. How this will be achieved is not clear. Southern Lebanon is the stronghold of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shiite political party with a heavily armed wing separate from the Lebanese military.

Hezbollah is considered a terrorist group by the US, Germany, Israel and several other countries. The EU, however, only gives that designation to Hezbollah's armed wing.   

Iran's foreign minister has sharply criticized Germany, France and the UK for moving to reinstate UN sanctions under the so-called "snapback" mechanism. 

"This decision by the three European countries will seriously undermie the ongoing process of interaction and cooperation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, calling the move a "provocative and unnecessary escalation." 

According to Iran's IRNA news agency, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his three European counterparts and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas in a phone call that Tehran would respond "appropriately to this illegal and unjustified action ... in order to protect and guarantee its national rights and interests." 

He was said to have called on the UK, France and Germany to "appropriately correct this wrong decision in the coming days." 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced support for the "snapback" sanctions on Thursday, but also said the US "remains available" for bilateral talks with Iran. 

Rubio called the snapback sanctions "a direct response to Iran's continuing defiance of its nuclear commitments" in comments online. 

In a State Department statement, Rubio also said the US "remains available for direct engagement with Iran — in furtherance of a peaceful, enduring resolution to the Iran nuclear issue." 

"Snapback does not contradict our earnest readiness for diplomacy, it only enhances it," Rubio said. "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." 

US policy regarding Iran has been difficult to gauge since Trump's return to the White House. The president has both said he seeks a negotiated settlement with Tehran and ordered June's airstrikes on nuclear sites in support of an Israeli military campaign.

The previous Biden administration also made little to no progress in its efforts to reinstate or renegotiate a nuclear accord with Iran during its four years in power, with the process ultimately breaking down and both sides introducing additional sanctions.

Reuters news agency reported, citing diplomats, that permanent Security Council members Russia and China finalized a draft resolution on Thursday that would extend the 2015 Iran nuclear deal for six months and urge Iran to immediately resume negotiations. 

The move comes after Britain, France and Germany sought to reactivate the so-called "snapback" mechanism for international sanctions against Iran lifted as part of the 2015 nuclear deal. 

It was not immediately clear whether Russia and China had requested a Security Council vote on their draft resolution, Reuters reported. 

The US, the European trio dubbed the E3, Russia and China were all party to the original 2015 negotiations with Iran.

Moscow has fairly close military and economic ties with Tehran.

A Security Council session is scheduled to take place later on Thursday in New York.

World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain issued a statement on  Gazaon Thursday following her recent visit to the enclave.

"Enough is enough," McCain wrote. "Gaza is at breaking point. Desperation is soaring — and I saw it firsthand."

Her comments come less than a week after the UN declared a famine in Gaza, blaming Israel in large part for its "systematic obstruction" of humanitarian deliveries. 

She visited Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah, touring a nutrition clinic for children and meeting with displaced mothers. 

"I met starving children receiving treatment for severe malnutrition — and I saw photos of when they were healthy. Today they are unrecognizable," McCain said. "We must urgently be able to revive our vast and trusted network of 200 food distribution points across the Strip, community kitchens and bakeries."

McCain met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in Ramallah in the West Bank during her visit. While she appealed for increased food assistance in the immediate term, she also said "what we need is a cease-fire." 

Israel rejected the UN's declaration of a famine in Gaza, saying the findings were "based on Hamas lies." 

Germany Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul issued a statement online soon after the reimposition of the Iran sanctions were announced. 

"As the E3 we are agreed that Iran can never succeed in possessing nuclear weapons," Wadephul wrote. "The snapback is not the end of diplomacy. It can be the beginning of a new phase of negotiations. It is Iran's responsibility to no longer resist a diplomatic soution." 

Wadephul went on to list what Britain, France and Germany expected from Iran in exchange for a new diplomatic drive, mentioning several issues that seem to directly contradict Iranian comments. 

"We now expect from Iran: Full cooperation with the IAEA. A clear acceptance of direct negotiations with the US. Verifiable, de-escalatory steps in its nuclear enrichment," he said. 

Wadephul said "30 days remain until the UN sanctions against Iran will come back into force," seemingly encouraging authorities in Tehran to seek a rapid solution. 

An Iranian minister threatened earlier on Thursday that Tehran would likely cease all cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency if the sanctions were reimposed. 

Iran's ambassador to Australia was seen preparing to leave the country on Thursday, after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ordered him to leave, alleging that Iran's government was behind at least two antisemitic arson attacks in the country. 

Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi spoke to local television stations as he headed for a flight at Sydney's airport. 

Albanese cut off diplomatic relations with Iran on Tuesday, after announcing that Australian intelligence officials had concluded that Iran directed arson attacks on a kosher food company, Lewis Continental Kitchen, in October 2024, and on Melbourne's Adass Israel Synagogue two months later. 

Although Australia has not presented any evidence linking Iran to the attacks, authorities have previously said they suspect foreign actors are paying local criminals to carry out attacks in the country. 

Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, did however say that no Iranian diplomats in Australia were involved in coordinating the attacks — meaning Australia does not consider Sadeghi himself complicit.

A second suspect, aged 20, was arrested last week in connection with the synagogue attack — with police alleging that three masked assailants were involved. The accusations against the government in Tehran followed soon after.

Israel's military said on Thursday that it had intercepted a drone launched from Yemen. 

Air-raid sirens sounded in Israeli towns near the border to Gaza prior to the interception, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement, but there were no reports of damage or injuries. 

TheIranian-backed Houthi militia, who have controlled most of Yemen for more than a decade, have regularly fired rockets and drones in Israel's direction or at ships in the Red Sea since the October 7 attack and Israel's subsequent military deployment in Gaza. The Houthis say the attacks are in solidarity with Hamas.

Israel has frequently targeted sites in Yemen in response.

Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan has called on Israel to release withheld tax revenues bound for the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank. 

Speaking during a visit to Jordan on Thursday, Radovan said the PA, under Mahmoud Abbas, was under unprecedented political and economic pressure. 

"In this situation Israel now has a responsibility to pay these taxes due to the Palestinians without delay," the Social Democrat politician said. "There's now no time to lose." 

Radovan said there would be no realistic chance of a two-state solution without a functioning PA.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul made a similar appeal during his visit to Israel in May, soon after Israel began to withhold the transfers. 

Israel collectes customs duties and taxes on behalf of the PA as part of the terms of the 1990s Oslo peace accords. 

Palestinian officials in the West Bank say the freeze has crippled their ability to pay salaries and maintain services, a situation observers have warned could ultimately benefit rival political group Hamas, which governs Gaza. 

Radovan had visited Israel and the West Bank as part of her tour of the region on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Britain, France and Germany submitted a letter to the UN Security Council on Thursday launching a 30-day process to automatically reimpose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. 

The punitive measures were lifted almost 10 years ago, in 2015, as part of the "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" (JCPOA) nuclear deal brokered between the three European countries, the US, and Iran. 

The US pulled out of the deal unilaterally early in Donald Trump's first term as president. But the three European countries had for years stuck to the compromised deal, hoping to continue to secure Iranian cooperation on issues like nuclear inspections in return. 

The European countries and Iran had held several rounds of talks since Israel and the US struck Iranian nuclear facilities in June of this year, seeking a diplomatic deal, possibly to defer the automatic "snapback" mechanism. But the European powers had complained that these talks did not yield sufficiently tangible commitments from Iran. 

Under the exisitng terms of the 2015 deal, by mid-October the snapback mechanism would have expired, making reimposing the sanctions more complex. 

The European governments informed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of their intentions on Wednesday.

An Iranian diplomat on Thursday warned the UK, France and Germany not to reimpose sanctions against the country, saying that Tehran would stop cooperating with nuclear inspections in that event. 

"We have told them if this happens, the pathway we have opened for working with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] will be completely affected and the process will likely be stopped," Kazem Gharibabadi, a deputy foreign minister, said in an interview with Iranian state television.

"If they opt for snapback, it makes no sense for Iran to continue" working with the IAEA, he said. The UN's nuclear agency regularly sends monitors to Iran, but also frequently complains of limits to its access.

Iran's rial currency, long effectively worthless on international markets, slipped slightly on Thursday as investors anticipated the possibility of sanctions being reimposed.

The "snapback" mechanism is so called because the UK, France and Germany lifted the sanctions as part of the 2015 nuclear deal struck with Iran — but with the ability to reimpose them immediately if Iran was deemed in breach of the accord. 

The deal's status has been problematic ever since Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from it during his first term in 2018 — but the European trio that helped broker it had kept the sanctions relief in place, even after the Biden administration opted not to try to reinstate or rejoin the process. 

The status of both the accord and Iran's nuclear program has been put into further question since the US and Israeli strikes targeting some of its nuclear facilities in June this year. 

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul repeated a warning about reimposing European sanctions on Iran, but also said that Berlin, Paris and London would prefer a diplomatic solution. 

Wadephul, a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, told reporters in the Estonian capital Tallinn that the so-called E3 — Germany, France and the UK — had always made it clear "that the instrument of a snapback is available." 

"At the same time, we have always made it clear that we are interested in a diplomatic solution," Wadephul said. 

He said the E3's main goal was to "prevent a renewed nuclear armament" in Iran, and that as a result of this the countries wanted to "take very restrictive measures regarding the enrichment of the relevant raw materials." 

He said there would be intensive joint consultations on "what is necessary at this time." 

Rumors of European powers reimposing the sanctions that were lifted as part of the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran have gained volume in recent weeks. Media including German news agency dpa reported on Thursday that the step could be realized as soon as a UN Security Council meeting later on Thursday. 

The snapback mechanism would enable the rapid reinstatement of various measures including a general arms embargo and various sanctions targeting Iranian individuals and organizations. 

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