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'Violator dictates rules of game': Iran slams E3's 'obedience' to US after snapback activation

Iran Press TV

Friday, 29 August 2025 10:39 AM

The spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry has slammed the European signatories to the US-abandoned 2015 nuclear deal for triggering the restoration of UN sanctions against the country, saying the move shows the E3's "obedience" to Washington.

Esmaeil Baghaei made the remarks in an X post on Friday, one day after the European trio triggered the snapback mechanism defined in Resolution 2231, which opens a 30-day period before the restoration of previously terminated UN Security Council sanctions against Iran.

He said that the Europeans' measure "is driven not by legal necessity or sound judgment, but ... signifies their obedience" to the National Security Presidential Memorandum-2 (NSPM-2) signed by US President Donald Trump in February to re-impose his so-called maximum pressure policy on Tehran.

"The E3 are demonstrating what passes for a 'credible' negotiating partner in the so-called 'rules-based international order,' where might makes right and where the 'violator' dictates the rules of the game," he added.

Baghaei also attached to his post a picture of Trump's meeting with top European leaders earlier last month at the Oval Office, where the US president positioned his guests around his work desk, evoking a scene of power imbalance and quiet humiliation.

Meanwhile, he censured the US for causing "a chain of subsequent vicious events" by its unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The spokesman further described the United States as "the tremendous spoiler & violator of JCPOA".

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his European counterparts in a call that Tehran will respond appropriately to their "illegal and unjustified action".

The US ditched the JCPOA in 2018 before returning the illegal sanctions that it had lifted against Iran and launching the so-called maximum pressure campaign.

Following the US withdrawal, the European signatories to the JCPOA failed to uphold their commitments and made no efforts to save the agreement.