https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/world/middleeast/iran-europe-nuclear-talks.html

European diplomats met with Iran’s deputy foreign minister in Istanbul on Friday to try to restart negotiations on limiting or eliminating Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and pledged to keep talking.

Iran had halted fledgling talks with the United States after Israel launched a 12-day war last month that damaged Iran’s nuclear facilities and other infrastructure.

If Iran fails to take serious steps toward a new nuclear deal, the Europeans say that they will initiate a procedure to restore severe United Nations and multilateral sanctions on Iran that were suspended under a landmark 2015 deal because Iran has been violating its terms.

Without progress in negotiations to extend the deadline on restoring sanctions, any U.N. restrictions could vanish for decades thanks to the difficulty of achieving unanimity in a Security Council where Russia and China both hold vetoes, said Ellie Geranmayeh, an Iran expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations.