Since the end of the Gaza conflict, a diplomatic opening has emerged that few expected to see. The United States and Iran have resumed indirect negotiations on nuclear constraints, with Omani intermediaries facilitating exchanges in Muscat and a potential direct meeting on the table. For Europe's three nuclear powers, the immediate question is whether they can secure a place in the process before its key decisions are made without them.
The E3 — Britain, France, and Germany — co-authored the original 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action alongside the United States, Russia, and China. The JCPOA collapsed in 2018 when the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew; subsequent European efforts to salvage it via a JCPOA+ framework ultimately failed, and the agreement was formally considered terminated by European parties in 2022 following Iran's enrichment escalations.
European foreign ministries are now positioning for a successor agreement. The German foreign ministry has been particularly active, arguing that European participation is essential to ensure any new deal includes robust verification mechanisms and a credible sanctions architecture. France is pushing for formal E3 inclusion in negotiating sessions, not merely consultation in their margins.
Brussels is coordinating a parallel track: the European Commission has been engaging with the US Treasury on sanctions design, seeking to ensure that any relief package in a potential deal is structured in a way that European companies — many of them burned by secondary sanctions exposure in previous rounds — can actually access without risking US market access.
Iran's foreign minister has said publicly that Tehran sees a constructive role for the E3 in renewed nuclear diplomacy, while Iranian officials have also made clear that direct US-Iran bilateral talks remain their preferred format for core negotiations. The gap between 60% enrichment — where Iran's programme currently sits — and weapons-grade 90% is technically narrow. That proximity gives both Tehran and Washington an urgency that previous negotiating rounds lacked, and European parties are counting on that urgency to create space for inclusion.
Europe's push to join the Iran talks is partly geopolitical — the E3 does not want a US-Iran deal written without European input that then reshapes Middle Eastern security in ways Brussels cannot influence — and partly commercial, since European energy companies have long sought access to Iranian markets that sanctions have blocked. The harder question is whether Iranian and American negotiators see European participation as adding value or adding complexity. If a deal is close and momentum is fast, the US may prefer speed over inclusiveness. Europe needs to make the case for its seat before that calculation hardens.
