Name: Why is Europe working towards a nuclear deal with Iran? | DW News
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Negotiators from France, Germany and the United Kingdom are in Istanbul for talks with Iran over the future of its nuclear programme.

Basic passive voice

Vehicles were seen entering the Iranian consulate in Istanbul ahead of the talks.

The three European countries have threatened to re-impose sanctions on Iran by August if there's no progress on a deal to further limit Tehran's nuclear production.

France, Germany and the UK are signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw international sanctions on Iran lifted in exchange for restrictions on uranium enrichment.

Iran has accused the European countries of failing to respect the deal and warned that it may withdraw from the international treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons if sanctions return.

Let's get more from our correspondent in Brussels, Lucia Schulten.

Well, very fundamentally, Europe does not want Iran to have nuclear weapons.

And then it also wants to see that Iran goes back on the negotiating table, that there will be a diplomatic solution, a negotiated solution, as it's called, be found to the situation.

And then more in detail in the current situation, they also want Iran to allow United Nations nuclear inspectors back in the country.

And they also want to know about the whereabouts of the highly enriched uranium that is according to the IAEA in Iran.

So these are the things that the European leaders are asking for.

And there are, of course, many other aspects to this.

And what are the Europeans offering in return, apart from sanctions relief?

Yeah, so it's a bit more that they do have a stick up their sleeves, so to say.

So the sanctions relief is already in place since the beginning of the GCPOA, which started in 2015.

Before that, there have been a lot of sanctions, far-reaching sanctions against Iran in place.

And under the GCPOA, there is a mechanism which is called snapback mechanism.

So and under this mechanism, if it's been triggered, these sanctions could be resumed.

There has been discussion whether the snapback option should be pulled already now.

There's been talk that this might happen in late summer.

And what is important to know as well is that the GCPOA will end in October of this year.

So if there is going to be made use of the snapback option, there's not a lot of time.

But having said it, it's been floated that this would be used.

But at the same time, we are also hearing signals from the European states, from diplomats which are being quoted, for example, by AP, that there is the idea of delaying this snapback option, which means putting sanctions back in place, if Iran does show credibly that it's ready to negotiate a comeback on the table and that it's also willing to take steps towards the EU's or the European leaders' demands.

And a quick word about consequences here.

Last time Tehran engaged in talks about its nuclear programme, it ended up being bombed.

Have the Europeans coordinated this latest diplomatic efforts with their partners in the US and Israel?

So only this week, we've been hearing from an EU spokesperson that they're in contact with all relevant actors without giving any more details what that actually means.

At the same time, we have also heard from the German foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, already in June, that he calls on Iran to really directly engage with the US.

So I think it is safe to assume at this point that there is a certain degree of backroom diplomacy, backchanneling going on, or at least the European Union is trying to do so.

But as I said, there are not many details being known.

At the same time, the EU High Representative Kaya Kallis is coordinator of the Joint Commission of the GCPOA.

So I think it's safe to say that at least they're trying to coordinate these efforts.

DW Brussels correspondent Lucia Schulten.