Iran to leave NPT if E3 activates snapback mechanism

TABNAK, Jun. 12 - Iran has issued a stark warning to European powers, stating it will exit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions are reimposed through the snapback mechanism.

News ID: 6514

Date: 12 June 2025 - 10:36

Iran's UN Envoy Saeed Iravani made the remarks in a letter dated Wednesday to the UN Security Council, Press TV reported.

The letter came in response to an underway drive by the UK, France, and Germany, known as E3, that is aimed at restoring the sanctions. The campaign has seen the trio forward an anti-Iran resolution to the UN nuclear watchdog alongside the United States to prompt the re-imposition of the bans.

The push aligns with the Western allies’ accusations that Iran is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons -- a claim the watchdog has never verified, despite conducting the most rigorous inspections in its history.

Iravani, therefore, denounced the Western campaign as a “legally baseless and politically reckless act, with profoundly destabilizing consequences for regional and international peace and security.”

He reiterated the Islamic Republic’s previous warnings that it would consider “proportionate response,” including by “starting the process of withdrawal from the NPT in accordance with Article X of the Treaty.”

The article outlines the right of a state party to withdraw from the treaty if "extraordinary events” jeopardize its supreme interests.

The envoy further denounced as “utterly baseless” the European trio’s wrongfully accusing Iran of “altering” its defensive doctrine so it could include the development of nuclear weapons.

Such drive, he added, reflected “a deliberate attempt to manufacture a crisis.”

“Iran's nuclear policy is unequivocally peaceful, rooted in both legal commitments under the NPT and a deeply held religious and strategic defensive doctrine prohibiting weapons of mass destruction,” the official asserted.

The Islamic Republic is, meanwhile, committed to finding a negotiated solution that provides enough assurances regarding the peaceful nature of its nuclear program, he asserted.