Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Britain agreed during a telephone conversation on Monday to set the end of August as the de facto deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran, Axios reported, citing three sources with knowledge of the conversation.
According to the publication, if an agreement is not reached before that deadline, the three European states plan to launch a snapback mechanism that automatically brings back all UN Security Council sanctions lifted as part of the 2015 agreement with Iran.
The process of activating the snapback mechanism lasts 30 days and the Europeans want to complete it before Russia assumes the presidency of the UN Security Council in October.
The publication writes that U.S. and European officials see snapback as a negotiating tool to pressure Tehran and as a fallback option if diplomacy fails.
But the Iranians say there is no legal basis for renewing sanctions and have threatened to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in response.
The sources said the phone conversation between Rubio and his European counterparts was aimed at agreeing on positions on “pushback” and next steps in nuclear diplomacy with Iran.
It is noted that the Europeans plan to reach out to Iran in the coming days and weeks with the message that Tehran can avoid retaliatory sanctions if it takes steps to reassure the world about its nuclear programme. Such steps could include restoring International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitoring. One source said another such step could be the removal from Iran of some 400kg of uranium enriched to 60 per cent.
Since the end of the war between Israel and Iran, the Trump administration has been trying to restart talks on a new nuclear deal.
Israel began striking Iran on the night of 13 June, the US launched several strikes on the night of 22 June. They justified their actions on the threat of Tehran building nuclear weapons.
Iran has repeatedly claimed that its nuclear programme is peaceful.