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Ten years after being lifted as part of an international nuclear agreement, sweeping UN economic and military sanctions have been reimposed on Iran. The UK, France, and Germany, key European partners in the original deal, triggered the "snapback" mechanism, citing Iran's "continued nuclear escalation" and lack of cooperation.
Iran suspended inspections of its nuclear facilities - a legal obligation under the terms of the 2015 deal - after Israel and the US bombed several of its nuclear sites and military bases in June.
Its President Masoud Pezeshkian insisted last week that the country had no intention of developing nuclear weapons.
The reintroduction of sanctions - which Pezeshkian described as "unfair, unjust, and illegal" - is the latest blow to a deal that was heralded as a turning point in Western relations with the long-ostracised Islamist nation when it was first struck.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) places limits on Iran's nuclear installations, its stockpiles of enriched uranium, and the amount of research and development it can undertake.
It aims to allow Iran to develop its nuclear power infrastructure without straying into making nuclear weaponry.
Iran stepped up its banned nuclear activity after Donald Trump pulled the US out of the agreement during his first term as president in 2018. He has persistently criticised the deal, negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, as flawed, vowing to negotiate better terms.
The US and Israeli bombing of nuclear facilities in June was intended to reverse some of Iran's nuclear progress, as well as punish it for arming regional proxies that have repeatedly attacked Israel.
While Trump said these had caused "monumental damage", others cast doubt on the extent to which they had hindered Iran's nuclear programme.
Iran said the strikes "fundamentally changed the situation" and rendered international support for the nuclear deal "obsolete".
European allies that remain party to the deal still hope negotiations will yield a cooling of tensions.
"We urge Iran to refrain from any escalatory action," they said in a joint statement, adding: "The reimposition of UN sanctions is not the end of diplomacy."
Talks between the three countries and Iran on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly earlier this week failed to produce a deal which would have delayed the sanctions being reimposed.
