Europe prefers to extend snapback mechanism
By Heydarali Masoudi
International relations professor
In the new round of diplomacy, European trio—France, Germany and Britian—feel they have been edged aside. They believe they were the architects of the nuclear talks with Iran and drive behind the JCPOA, rooted in early 2000s multilateral and normative European diplomacy. Yet, with indirect Iran–US talks stalling or turning confrontational, European officials now believe that Iran might seek to rekindle direct diplomatic engagement with Europe rather than continue indirect interactions with the US.
Meanwhile, rising competition between Europe and the US—particularly during Trump’s second term—has pushed Europe to see international dossiers like Iran’s nuclear case as bargaining tools to assert their diplomatic clout against the United States. This stems from two motives: first, a belief that negotiations without Europe produced unintended tensions and open conflict, creating a vacuum Europe is ready to fill; second, a broader transatlantic rivalry has encouraged Europe to carve out a fresh diplomatic role on the global stage.
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