Russia and China have condemned a decision by Britain, Germany and France to launch a process that could reimpose United Nations sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme.

The three European countries, known as the E3, launched the so-called “snapback mechanism” on Thursday over accusations that Iran has violated a 2015 deal that aimed to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapons capability in return for the lifting of international sanctions.

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The move opens a 30-day window during which a new UN resolution to continue sanctions relief must be adopted to prevent penalties from being reimposed.

“We strongly condemn these actions by European countries and call on the international community to reject them,” the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday in a statement that blamed the United States and the Europeans for the collapse of the 2015 nuclear deal.

China said the move by the European countries was “not constructive”.

“The Iranian nuclear issue is at a critical juncture. Launching the Security Council’s snapback mechanism of sanctions is not constructive and will undermine the process of a political and diplomatic settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular media briefing on Friday.

Iran earlier decried the move, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi saying it was “unjustified” and “lacking any legal basis” in a call with his European counterparts.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will respond appropriately to this unlawful and unwarranted measure,” he said. Hours later, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the move by the European countries will “gravely undermine” its ongoing cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog agency.

NPT withdrawal threat

Iranian MP Hossein-Ali Haji-Deligani told the Tasnim news agency that the parliament is planning legislation that would take the country out of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in response to the European move.

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The treaty has been a cornerstone of global nuclear arms control for decades.

“The draft law is on the agenda and will undergo the legal review and approval process next week,” the MP told the agency, adding that given the possible reimplementation of UN sanctions, further nuclear negotiations with the West would no longer make sense.

The only option, he said, would be to completely sever ties with the European trio.

Iran says it needs nuclear energy for power, but the West has long feared it is trying to build an atomic bomb.

US President Donald Trump, who unilaterally took the US out of the 2015 deal in his first term, said he believed it was not sufficiently curtailing Iranian nuclear ambitions.

Tehran has repeatedly threatened to exit the NPT in the past.