EU refuses to lift key Iran sanctions until a formal nuclear deal is signed
The European Union will not lift its most significant sanctions on Iran until a formal nuclear agreement is reached, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said Friday — a clear signal that Europe does not consider the interim memorandum of understanding signed by the United States and Iran this week to be enough.
Kaja Kallas, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, told Al Jazeera that the bloc’s position is conditional on progress in the nuclear file. “We have clear conditions in place,” she said. “We have different sanctions on Iran.”
The statement comes three days after President Donald Trump and Iranian leaders approved a memorandum of understanding that defers the hardest issues — including the nuclear program — to a second phase of negotiations. European capitals have watched the process with growing unease, wary that a rushed framework deal could repeat the failures of earlier diplomatic efforts.
“The announced agreement to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz marks a potential breakthrough,” Kallas said earlier this week. But she added that once fully implemented, the arrangement “should also play a significant role in easing the global energy crisis.”
Speaking at an informal summit of EU leaders in Cyprus on Friday, Kallas warned that any deal lacking proper technical nuclear expertise could produce an agreement far weaker than the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which the United States withdrew from in 2018.
“If negotiations are reduced solely to the nuclear file and experts are not at the table, the result will be an agreement far weaker than the 2015 deal,” she told Reuters.
The 2015 deal limited Iran’s uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump pulled out of it in his first term, calling it “one of the worst and most embarrassing deals in US history.” His administration then pursued a policy of maximum pressure that culminated in the 110-day war that ended this week.
Kallas insisted that Europe’s concerns go beyond the nuclear issue. She warned that any agreement must also address Iran’s ballistic missile program, its support for armed groups across the region, and what she called “hybrid activities” and cyberattacks targeting Europe.
“If these challenges are not addressed, we will ultimately face a much more dangerous Iran,” she said.
On Sunday, the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy issued a joint statement saying they were prepared to lift sanctions on Iran in response to steps on its nuclear program. But that offer was explicitly tied to a formal nuclear agreement, not the interim MoU that Trump and Iran signed this week.
The distinction matters. The MoU is a political framework that ends active hostilities, reopens the Strait of Hormuz, and sets a timeline for follow-on negotiations. It does not resolve the status of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, its centrifuge program, or its compliance with International Atomic Energy Agency inspections. Those questions are deferred.
Europe, which maintained the JCPOA’s sanctions relief framework for years after Washington abandoned it, is now the gatekeeper of the most extensive sanctions regime still in place. The United States can lift its own sanctions by executive order. European sanctions require consensus among 27 member states, each with its own domestic politics and trade relationships to consider.
Kallas said EU foreign ministers will meet to discuss how the bloc can be “closely involved” in the next phase. She has spoken with her Iranian and Gulf counterparts in recent days.
The EU position creates a potential tension point between Washington and Brussels. The Trump administration has presented the MoU as a historic breakthrough. European officials see it as a starting point — and they are making clear they will not treat it as an endpoint.