Iran agrees to hold nuclear talks with Europe's big three

Iran and US held several rounds of negotiations before Israel launched strikes in June

Destruction in a residential neighbourhood of Tehran after it was hit by an Israeli air strike. Getty Images

Iran has agreed with Germany, France and Britain to hold talks on its nuclear programme, the country's Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday.

The move comes after warnings by the Europeans that failure to resume negotiations would lead to UN sanctions being reimposed on Tehran.

"The principle of talks has been agreed upon, but consultations are continuing on the time and place of the talks," the semi-official Tasnim agency quoted a source as saying. "The country in which the talks could be held next week has not been finalised."

Iran and the US held several rounds of negotiations aimed at reviving a nuclear deal but those were derailed when Israel launched strikes on Iran in June, leading to 12 days of war.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has said France, Britain and Germany would launch the UN snapback mechanism on Iran to restore sanctions by the end of August if no concrete progress has been made on a deal by then.

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  Rescue and recovery crews at work at a residential site in Be'er Sheva following a missile attack from Iran on June 24. Reuters

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  Contrails from Israeli air defence system are visible as interceptor rockets are launched towards Iranian missiles during an Iranian attack on June 24. AP

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  Residents spend the night in an underground garage as a precaution against Iranian missile attacks in Tel Aviv on June 23. AP

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  Supporters of regime change in Iran rally outside the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles, California. The Los Angeles area holds the largest Iranian community in the world outside of Iran. AFP

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  A US Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber takes off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to support Operation Midnight Hammer against Iran. AFP

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  Projectiles in the sky over Doha, Qatar, on June 23 as the US military base at Al Udeid is attacked by Iran. AFP

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  The remnants of an Iranian missile intercepted over Qatar. AFP

Under the terms of a UN resolution ratifying a 2015 nuclear pact, the deadline for the three European powers to reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran is October 18.

But August had long been discussed as an informal date because of procedural reasons related to the snapback mechanism, which involves a 30-day review period.

The mechanism can be requested by participants of the 2015 deal and cannot be vetoed by any of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – China, the US, Russia, France and Britain.

Tehran has said its nuclear programme is peaceful but Israel and the US say it was months away from producing a nuclear bomb before their recent air strikes on Iran, an assessment that has not been made publicly by the Europeans.

The strikes pushed the Iranian parliament to pass a law stipulating that inspection of Iran's nuclear sites by the UN's nuclear watchdog needs approval from Tehran's Supreme National Security Council.