France urges Iran to reach nuclear deal this summer or face ‘snapback’ UN sanctions

France’s US ambassador calls on Iran to resume full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and allow access for UN nuclear inspectors as soon as possible to its nuclear facilities to determine that its uranium stocks have not been moved.

Jerome Bonnafont also calls on Tehran to return to negotiations on “a robust, verifiable and lasting diplomatic solution” that responds to international concerns that it is pursuing nuclear weapons.

He speaks at a UN Security Council meeting on its resolution endorsing the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers to rein in its nuclear program that imposed wide-ranging sanctions on the Islamic Republic. The last sanctions, on Iran’s nuclear activities and transfers, expire on October 18.

Bonnafont says France and its European partners Britain and Germany, who are still part of the nuclear deal — US President Donald Trump pulled the US out in 2018 — are ready to use the 2015 resolution’s provision to “snapback” UN sanctions “if such an agreement were not to be found by the summer.”

He says an agreement with Iran needs to take into account the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, regional stability and European security interests.