US, European powers set August deadline for Iran nuclear agreement

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK, during a telephonic conversation, have agreed to set the end of August as the de facto deadline for reaching a nuclear deal with Iran, Axios reported citing three sources.

As per the report, if no deal is reached by that deadline, the three European powers plan to trigger the "snapback" mechanism that automatically reimposes all UN Security Council sanctions that were lifted under the 2015 Iran deal.

The development comes as US President Donald Trump has said that Tehran was hoping to engage in discussions with the US, but he was in no rush to talk with Iran.

"They would like to talk. I'm in no rush to talk because we obliterated their sites," Trump told reporters after his arrival in Washington following a trip to Pittsburgh, referring to US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites last month.

Trump's remarks come against the backdrop of Tehran's refusal to hold nuclear talks if they were conditioned on the country abandoning its uranium enrichment activities.

The US and Iran had been engaged in several rounds of negotiations seeking to strike a deal on the latter's nuclear programme, but Israel derailed the talks when it launched a wave of surprise strikes on its regional nemesis, touching off 12 days of war.

Since the end of the hostilities, both Iran and the United States have signalled willingness to return to the table, though Tehran has said it will not renounce its right to the peaceful use of nuclear power.

"If the negotiations must be conditioned on stopping enrichment, such negotiations will not take place," Ali Velayati, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US envoy Steve Witkoff had previously failed to conclude a deal after five rounds of talks that began in April and were the highest-level contact between the two countries since Washington abandoned a landmark nuclear agreement in 2018.

The Omani-mediated negotiations were halted as Israel launched its surprise attack on Iranian nuclear and military facilities on June 13, with the US later joining its ally and carrying out limited strikes.