It has now been more than 6 weeks since Iran announced the termination of all its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. This came after the so-called E3 powers—Germany, France and the United Kingdom—reimposed sanctions by triggering a clause in the deal allowing them to do so if Iran was found to be in noncompliance with its nuclear commitments. The sanctions froze Iranian assets abroad, halted arms transactions with Tehran and penalized entities linked to its ballistic missile development.
The JCPOA was already on its last legs, after all three European states backed Israel diplomatically and militarily during its 12-day war against Iran in June 2025, to say nothing of U.S. strikes ordered by President Donald Trump on Iran’s nuclear facilities during that conflict. That had already deepened distrust within Tehran toward Western powers. But these latest developments effectively confirm the death of the 2015 deal to limit Tehran’s uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief, reflecting a clear inflection point in Iran’s relations with the West.
It’s also a blow for diplomacy. The European powers, while critical of Iran’s enrichment activities, were initially seen as diplomatic intermediaries after Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 and reimposed sweeping unilateral sanctions as part of his “maximum pressure” campaign to get Iran to agree to a more favorable deal. The decision to reimpose European and U.N.-mandated sanctions reflects a closer alignment with Washington, driven partly by a desire to maintain U.S. support for Europe’s security amid the war in Ukraine.
