The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote on a resolution Friday (September 19, 2025) on whether to reimpose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, as European officials warn Tehran that time is running out to come to a diplomatic resolution ahead of next week’s annual United Nations gathering of world leaders.

The resolution put forth by South Korea, the current president of the 15-member council, would require at least nine votes to halt the sanctions from taking effect at the end of the month as outlined by Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Diplomats have indicated that, despite differing views, there is not enough support to avoid all sanctions against Iran without any conditions.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom moved last month to trigger the “snapback mechanism,” which automatically reimposes all U.N. sanctions that were in effect before the nuclear deal. Those penalties included a conventional arms embargo, restrictions on ballistic missile development, asset freezes, travel bans and a ban on producing nuclear-related technology.

The process is designed to be veto-proof unless the U.N.’s most powerful body agrees to stop it.

Over the last several weeks, intensified diplomacy between Iran and the European countries has taken place, but without a resolution so far and indications that sanctions were likely.

When asked in an interview Thursday on Israel’s Channel 12 whether “snapback” was a done deal, French President Emmanuel Macron said, “Yes, I think so because the latest news we had from the Iranians are not serious.”

German and European Union leaders had warned Iran in a call Wednesday that it had yet to take the necessary action to stop the reimposition of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, which is already reeling from a 12-day war and a decades-long financial crisis.

“The window for finding a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear issue is closing really fast,” the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said in a statement. “Iran must show credible steps towards addressing the demands of France, U.K. and Germany, and this means demonstrating full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and allowing inspections of all nuclear sites without delay.”

In a statement issued hours later, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi again asserted that the reimposition of U.N. sanctions was “lacking any legal or logical justification.”

He also pointed to the fact that Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog earlier reached a deal mediated by Egypt to grant the IAEA access to all Iranian nuclear sites and for Tehran to report on the whereabouts of all its nuclear material.

Details of the agreement were not immediately released. In an address last week to his agency’s board of governors in Vienna, IAEA Director Rafael Grossi said the document “provides for a clear understanding for the procedures of inspection notifications and their implementation.”

The agreement “includes all facilities and installations in Iran and it also contemplates the required reporting on all the attacked facilities including the nuclear material present at those,” Grossi added, noting it will “open the way for the respective inspections and access” without specifying when that would happen.

A 12-day war Israel launched against Iran in June saw both the Israelis and the Americans bomb Iranian nuclear sites, throwing into question the status of Tehran’s stockpile of uranium enriched nearly to weapons-grade levels.

Using the “snapback” mechanism will likely heighten tensions between Iran and the West. It’s unclear how Iran will respond, given that in the past, officials have threatened to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, potentially following North Korea, which abandoned the treaty in 2003 and then built atomic weapons.

Security chief Ali Larijani said Tuesday that Iran was open to nuclear talks with the United States but ruled out any restrictions on its missile programme.

“The path for negotiations with the US is not closed; yet these are the Americans who only pay lip service to talks and do not come to the table; and they wrongly blame Iran for it,” said Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

“By raising unrealisable issues such as missile restrictions, they set a path which negates any talks,” Larijani said in a post on X.

The remarks came days after the United States welcomed a move by European powers to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran but said it remained “available for direct engagement with Iran”.

Nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington, which had begun in April, broke off in mid-June when Israel attacked Iranian nuclear facilities, swiftly followed by the United States.

On Thursday, Britain, France and Germany— the so-called E3 — triggered a “snapback” clause in the moribund 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and major powers that allows for UN sanctions to be reimposed in the event of non-compliance with its provisions.

That agreement effectively collapsed in 2018 when US President Donald Trump withdrew from it during his first term and restored crippling sanctions.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington seeks an “enduring resolution to the Iran nuclear issue” and that “snapback does not contradict our earnest readiness for diplomacy, it only enhances it.”

Following the Israeli and US attacks, Iran suspended cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog and demanded guarantees against military action before resuming any negotiations.

Western governments have repeatedly voiced concern about Iran’s missile programme, calling it a threat to regional security.

In July, France called for a “comprehensive deal” with Tehran that covers not only its nuclear programme but also its missile programme and its regional ambitions.

Iran has insisted that its military capabilities are not up for negotiation.

Western governments suspect Iran of seeking a nuclear weapons capability, an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.

UN Security Council permanent members China and Russia backed Iran on Monday in rejecting a move by European countries to reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran loosened a decade ago under a nuclear agreement.

A letter signed by the Chinese, Russian and Iranian Foreign Ministers said a move by Britain, France and Germany to automatically restore the sanctions under a so-called “snapback mechanism” was “legally and procedurally flawed”.

China and Russia were signatories to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, along with the three European countries, known as the E3. U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in his first term in 2018.

The Europeans launched the “snapback mechanism” last week, accusing Iran of violating the deal, which had provided relief from international financial sanctions in return for curbs to Iran’s nuclear programme.

The letter published by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X on Monday said that the course taken by Britain, France, and Germany “abuses the authority and functions of the UN Security Council”.

Iran has long since broken through the limits on uranium production set under the 2015 deal, arguing that it is justified in doing so as a consequence of Washington having pulled out of the agreement. The deal expires in October this year, and the snapback mechanism would allow sanctions that were lifted under it to take effect again.

Iran and the E3 held talks aimed at a new nuclear agreement after Israel and the U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear installations in mid-June. But the E3 deemed that talks in Geneva last week did not yield sufficient signals of readiness for a new deal from Iran.

“Our joint letter with my colleagues, the foreign ministers of China and Russia, signed in Tianjin, reflects the firm position that the European attempt to invoke snapback is legally baseless and politically destructive”, Iran’s foreign minister said in his post on X.

Britain, France and Germany have told the United Nations they are ready to reimpose UN-mandated sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme if no diplomatic solution is found by the end of August, according to a joint letter released Wednesday.

The letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council says the three European powers are “committed to use all diplomatic tools at our disposal to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon”.

“Iran must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons under any circumstances,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X, posting a copy of the letter.

“If Iran continues to violate its international obligations, France and its German and British partners will reimpose the global embargoes on arms, nuclear equipment and banking restrictions that were lifted 10 years ago at the end of August,” Mr. Barrot added.

In the letter, the Foreign Ministers from the so-called E3 group threaten to use a “snapback mechanism” that was part of a 2015 international deal with Iran that eased UN Security Council sanctions.

Under the deal, which terminates in October, any party to the accord can restore the sanctions.

All three have stepped up warnings to Iran about its suspension of cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

That came after Israel launched a 12-day war with Iran in June, partly seeking to destroy its nuclear capability. The United States staged its own bombing raid during the war.

“We have made clear that if Iran is not willing to reach a diplomatic solution before the end of August 2025, or does not seize the opportunity of an extension, E3 are prepared to trigger the snapback mechanism,” said the foreign ministers of France, Britain and of Germany.

All three countries were signatories to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with the United States, China and Russia that offered the carrot and stick deal for Iran to slow its enrichment of uranium needed for a nuclear weapon.

U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the accord in 2018 during his first term and ordered new sanctions.

The European countries said they would stick to the accord. But their letter sets out engagements that the ministers say Iran has breached, including building up a uranium stock to more than 40 times the permitted level under the 2015 deal.

“The E3 remain fully committed to a diplomatic resolution to the crisis caused by Iran’s nuclear programme and will continue to engage with a view to reaching a negotiated solution.

“We are equally ready, and have unambiguous legal grounds, to notify the significant non-performance of JCPOA commitments by Iran … thereby triggering the snapback mechanism, should no satisfactory solution be reached by the end of August 2025,” the ministers wrote in the letter.

End of cooperation

The United States had already started contacts with Iran, which denies seeking a weapon, over its nuclear activities.

But these were halted by the Israeli strikes in June on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Even before the strikes, the international powers had raised concerns about the lack of access given to IAEA inspectors.

Iran halted all cooperation with the IAEA after the strikes, but it announced that the agency’s deputy chief was expected in Teheran for talks on a new cooperation deal.

Last month Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi sent a letter to the UN saying that the European countries did not have the legal right to restore sanctions.

The European Ministers called this allegation “unfounded”.

They insisted that as JCPOA signatories, they would be “clearly and unambiguously legally justified in using relevant provisions” of UN resolutions “to trigger UN snapback to reinstate UNSC resolutions against Iran which would prohibit enrichment and re-impose UN sanctions.”