‘Coalition of the Willing’ Ready to Deliver Long-Range Missiles to Ukraine — What Could Go Wrong?
Sputnik – 04.09.2025
Members of the “Coalition of the Willing” have expressed their readiness to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles, Downing Street said on Thursday.
A meeting took place in Paris earlier on Thursday in a hybrid format, chaired by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.
“The Prime Minister also welcomed announcements from Coalition of the Willing partners to supply long range missiles to Ukraine to further bolster the country’s supplies,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin previously stated that Ukrainian forces could only carry out such operations with NATO personnel involved, signaling direct Western participation in the conflict. This could fundamentally change the nature of the confrontation, with NATO members effectively fighting against Russia.
At the same time, Europe’s vision of security guarantees for Ukraine involves stationing troops away from the front lines for demonstration and training purposes, the Washington Post reported Thursday, citing unnamed officials with direct knowledge of the plans.
The deployment will include a “demonstration” element, with troops serving as a deterrent against Russia, and a “regeneration” element, which implies training and rebuilding the country’s military force. The ultimate goal is transforming the Ukrainian military into what EU leaders call a “steel porcupine,” the daily reported.
On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that work on preparing security guarantees for Ukraine had been completed. The so-called coalition of the willing will meet in Paris on Thursday in a hybrid format to thrash out details of security arrangements. Following the meeting, several European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will call US President Donald Trump, French media reported.
On August 18, US President Donald Trump held a meeting in Washington with Ukrainian and European leaders, after which he announced that France, Germany and the United Kingdom want to deploy troops on Ukrainian territory. He added that there would be no US troops in Ukraine during his presidency. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said previously that the presence of NATO allies’ troops on Ukrainian soil — under any flag and in any capacity, including as peacekeepers — was a threat to Russia, and that Moscow would not accept it under any circumstances.
Iran’s parliament submits emergency bill to withdraw from NPT
Al Mayadeen | August 29, 2025
Following the announcement by the E3 (France, Germany, and the United Kingdom) to trigger the snapback mechanism on sanctions against Tehran, Iran’s Parliament has drafted and submitted an emergency bill proposing a full withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Hossein-Ali Haji-Deligani, Deputy Chairman of the Article 90 Committee of Iran’s Parliament, confirmed that the bill will be uploaded to the parliamentary system on the following day and subsequently reviewed in an open session.
“As we had previously stated, these countries were already implementing the consequences of the snapback mechanism, including sanctions against us. There is nothing new in this.” Haji-Deligani told Iran’s Tasnim.
He further stated that the steps taken were “the most minimal response by Parliament to the recent action of the European countries, and further regret-inducing measures are also on the agenda.”
Deputy chairman calls for decisive action
The proposed legislation comes amid growing frustration in Tehran over the West’s repeated failure to honor agreements and ease pressure on Iran. Haji-Deligani noted that Iran’s Parliament is determined to pursue a firm and deterrent course of action.
According to the lawmaker, the activation of the snapback mechanism effectively reinstates previous sanctions but introduces no new developments. Nonetheless, he emphasized that Iran’s response would be strategic and assertive.
Criticizing continued dialogue with Western countries, Haji-Deligani asserted, “Given what these three countries have done, negotiations with them are now meaningless. Dialogue will only embolden them.”
“We witnessed that during negotiations with the arrogant US, a brutal war was launched against our country by Israel, and the US bombed our peaceful nuclear sites,” he added. “Our people clearly know that talks with these countries have brought nothing but more pressure. Therefore, all dialogue must be suspended until these countries abandon their double standards.”
The emergency bill signals a potential turning point in Iran-E3 talks and highlights a significant policy shift in Tehran’s approach to its nuclear file. The move could impact the broader framework governing the Iran nuclear program and regional diplomacy.
Iran vows response
Iran’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on Thursday that France, Britain, and Germany have formally notified Tehran of their decision to trigger the “snapback” mechanism to reimpose United Nations sanctions under the 2015 nuclear deal.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the measure as “illegal and unjustified,” warning that Tehran would respond “appropriately to protect and guarantee its national rights and interests.”
In a phone call with his French, British, and German counterparts, Araghchi urged them to “appropriately correct this wrong decision in the coming days.” He stopped short of detailing possible retaliatory steps but hinted that the E3 risk being excluded from any future negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.
The E3 action came just days after Iranian and European diplomats held a second round of talks in Geneva, billed as a last chance to salvage engagement before the October deadline for invoking the snapback clause.
The discussions collapsed without “tangible commitments,” according to European officials, who claim that Tehran’s ongoing breaches of enrichment limits left them with no choice but to act. It is noteworthy that the E3 had failed to uphold their commitments in accordance with the JCPOA after the US unilaterally left the agreement in 2018.
Russian Ambassador Slams U.S. & Europe Over Iran Sanctions at UN
Russia confirms circulating draft proposal aimed at preventing activation of ‘snapback’
Press TV – August 27, 2025
Russia has confirmed circulating a draft proposal at the UN Security Council aimed at averting activation of the so-called “snapback” mechanism that would restore the council’s sanctions against Iran.
The country’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanski made the remarks to reporters during a press conference on Tuesday.
“It (the proposal) is about extending Resolution 2231,” he said.
The resolution’s expected expiration in October would lead to reinstatement of the coercive measures.
The European trio of the UK, France, and Germany – the United States allies in a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world countries – has been trying hard to have the measures restored.
Polyanski, however, insisted, “Russia and China want to give more breathing space for diplomacy and provide some possibilities for an active quest for a diplomatic solution to this issue.”
He said Moscow and Beijing were doing so in their capacity as “as responsible members of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal’s official name. … Full article
European economies and societies are broken
By Sonja van den Ende | Strategic Culture Foundation | August 28, 2025
In recent days, one alarming report after another has emerged about the European economies. The political elites and their mouthpieces, the mainstream media, can no longer ignore it. Things are not going well—and that is putting it mildly. The situation is bad and will get worse. This is something some of us had anticipated for quite some time, and alert economists have been saying and warning about.
Let’s start with one of the richest countries in Europe: the Netherlands. Although small in size, the wealth enjoyed by elites and, to some extent, citizens some twenty years ago was enormous. I would even venture to say that, in some respects, the Netherlands was richer than Switzerland.
But due to many factors—bad politics, and the emergence of countries like China and, to a certain extent, India and Russia, whose economies have become stronger and their citizens richer—the Netherlands is now on the verge of collapse, like almost all wealthy EU countries, or rather, Western countries.
Dutch politics has been unstable for years. There are simply too many parties, too many opinions, and too much division. While the older, established parties remain strong in terms of seat count, they cannot truly govern. Moreover, there is the “manufactured” housing crisis caused by the insane nitrogen policy, the refugee crisis that causes daily street violence and the murder of women and children, and then there are the agendas of the WEF and the UN that have to be pushed through due to the advancing artificial intelligence (AI) frenzy. It is a cocktail of unrest and division. Also, let us not forget the increasing criminality of the Moroccan mafia: the underworld has now penetrated into the upper world.
The new elections (the last one was in 2023) and the government, which did not take office until 2024, have been ineffective. The population is being misled and distracted by the supposed war Russia is planning to start. So, parties like the established Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) are devising new plans. This party, which is well in the lead, wants to introduce a “freedom tax” to increase the defense budget so they can wage “war” or defend themselves against the greatest threat: Russia.
Then we come to the worst, “sickest” kid in the class: Germany. The welfare state is “no longer financially viable,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a BlackRock man, in recent interviews. Of course, it is no longer financially viable—one does not have to be an economic whiz kid to see that, with so many migrants contributing little to nothing but receiving money from the state.
The country has been slowly spiraling toward the abyss since 2015, a process that can no longer be stopped; politicians and elites do not want to stop it. They talk a lot but essentially do nothing. The famous German car industry is ruined, the chemical industry is ruined, and with it, many suppliers.
The most foolish thing Germany could do economically was to stop buying Russian gas. Now they have a major problem: like the rest of Europe, they have to buy expensive LNG from the U.S. The costs are skyrocketing, to put it mildly.
Recently, after all the government’s lies and manipulation, the truth about how Germany, or rather its citizens, should survive the winter came to light. Many gas storage facilities in Germany are currently significantly emptier than in previous years. The Greens, who want to gradually phase out gas, are warning in the Bundestag about the consequences of a cold winter. The Greens’ policies have effectively ruined Germany, with incompetent politicians like Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck. Both have resigned and emigrated abroad, leaving behind a political and economic disaster in Germany.
That other major country in Europe, France, with a president (Macron) who thinks that France is still a great power like it was in the time of the Sun King—Louis XIV or Napoleon—is doing just as badly. According to media reports there, the economy is also struggling. At the end of the first quarter of 2025, French public debt stood at €3,345.4 billion, or 113.9% of GDP.
That the French are arrogant (not all of them, of course) is a well-known fact in Europe and perhaps beyond. But Macron is taking it too far. In a recent interview, Macron called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “predator, a monster at our gates.”
This comes after the disgusting display in Paris at the Olympic Games (in 2024), where satanic rituals mixed with religion were on display, which many countries and citizens expressed their horror about. Now he has the arrogance to make these public statements. If you thought Zelensky was stupid with his statements, Macron is his equal in this.
The countries I mentioned are, or rather were, the “running economic engines” of the EU, the economic heart of Europe, which actually paid for the poorer countries in the south, such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, and especially Greece, a country that went bankrupt in 2008.
Europeans all witnessed the misery in Greece: pensioners eating from garbage bins, entire shopping streets closed, poverty everywhere. Now we see it happening in the heart of the EU economy. Germany has become almost unlivable, especially in the major cities.
The same street scene: retirees who should actually be enjoying a well-earned rest collect plastic bottles for the deposit money, and now, if the government has its way, they will have to do a year of compulsory military service. Imagine this—you just do not want to imagine it…
Europe has lost its prosperity; its culture is being swallowed up by the many migrants who bring their own, and instead of assimilation, these cultures foreign to Europe now predominate. In their foolish attitude and, above all, the indoctrination of many years, politicians now believe they live in a “multicultural” entity. But this is not the case; integration has failed, and European citizens are paying the price for their inaction and for allowing this situation to escalate.
Politicians across Europe, especially in the Western EU countries I mentioned, are seeking a way out—to save their own skins, not so much for their people (in fact, the majority do not care about the people)—but to escape the financial malaise and the people’s anger. They have now resorted to the war agenda that followed the COVID-19 agenda (partly a social behavioral project), the war agenda that was implemented immediately after the launch of the Russian Special Military Operation (SMO).
The Eastern EU countries—Poland, which is currently experiencing the same problems as the Western EU countries: refugees and increased drug use—are the worst when it comes to Russophobia. I am referring specifically to the Baltic States: small but powerful in hatred, and above all, the countries with the most Nazi and fascist supporters. Nazism has never been eradicated there, just like in Western Ukraine.
With this hatred of Russia, they have infected all of Europe, thus playing into the hands of the political elites of Western Europe, who eagerly participate in demonizing Russians—even though some countries and their populations actually have nothing against Russians and have only now been forced by their governments to think, and even worse, hate, about Russia.
The European elites must now also consider the role they will play, now that it is painfully clear that the era of colonization and imperialism is nearly over. Because of this painful geopolitical and economic truth, they are now oppressing their own people, partly succeeding with the “new migrants” who fear for their residency and visas.
But the true indigenous European population is slowly but surely realizing that freedom of speech and press no longer exists, that their democratic rights have been taken away, and that life has become very difficult. This is leading to major conflicts, especially in the once so “free” Netherlands, where people could essentially say anything, even if it was inappropriate. Very turbulent times are ahead, and unfortunately, we are already seeing Europe collapse… just like the Roman Empire when it collapsed; things can happen quickly.
Iran’s foreign minister: Entry of IAEA inspectors does not signal full cooperation

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister
Press TV – August 27, 2025
Iran’s foreign minister has confirmed the arrival of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) following a months-long hiatus.
Abbas Araghchi, however, said their presence does not mean the resumption of full cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Wednesday, the foreign minister said the entry was authorized by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and limited to overseeing the fuel replacement process at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant.
He said under a recent parliamentary law, all cooperation with the IAEA must be approved by the SNSC.
“No text has yet received final approval,” he added, referring to ongoing discussions about a new cooperation modality following the acts of aggression by the Israeli regime and the United States in June.
Iran has barred any new inspections since the attacks, citing safety concerns at damaged nuclear sites and criticizing the IAEA’s failure to condemn the strikes.
Earlier, Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said the inspectors’ presence was tied to routine operations at the Bushehr facility and the need to maintain electricity supply to the national grid.
On August 26, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi announced that inspectors were “back in Iran.”
In an interview with Fox News, Grossi said, “When it comes to Iran, as you know, there are many facilities. Some were attacked, some were not.”
“So we are discussing what kind of … practical modalities can be implemented to facilitate the restart of our work there.”
The developments come amid renewed diplomatic tensions, as Iran held talks in Geneva with Britain, France, and Germany over their threat to trigger the so-called snapback mechanism, a provision of the 2015 nuclear deal that would restore UN sanctions lifted under the accord.
European signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) have said they will wait until August 31 to decide whether to activate the mechanism.
Iran has reduced its cooperation with the IAEA in recent years in response to the withdrawal of the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal and the failure of Europeans to make up for the withdrawal.
The Illusion of Israeli Self Sufficiency in Intelligence
By José Niño | The Libertarian Institute | August 26, 2025
Casual onlookers salivate at the supposed brilliance of Israel’s intelligence services. From Mossad’s assassinations abroad to daring sabotage campaigns in hostile territory, the Jewish state has been elevated in popular imagination as a scrappy David with unmatched cunning, capable of pulling off operations that leave even world powers like the United States in awe. Books, films, and mainstream pundits reinforce this myth, presenting Israel’s intelligence machine as self-sufficient and independent.
But when one peels back the layers, the narrative quickly unravels. Israel’s most celebrated operations—from targeted killings in Europe to sabotage inside Iran—were rarely the product of Israeli ingenuity alone. They relied on cooperation with the CIA, NSA cyberwarfare expertise, European intelligence networks, and even covert collaboration with Arab regimes that publicly denounce Israel while privately working with it. Much like its dependence on U.S. military aid and diplomatic cover, Israel’s intelligence empire survives not through independence but through reliance on Western logistics, intelligence sharing, and political approval. What is sold as the story of a bootstrapping nation is a case study in multinational complicity.
According to investigative reporting by Israeli journalists Melman and Ronen Bergman, Israel’s intelligence community relied heavily on intelligence partnerships with Western and allied nations to conduct clandestine activities in foreign territories.
The foundation of this intelligence cooperation traces back to the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. According to Dr. Aviva Guttmann’s research, which Melman has covered extensively, the Berne Club—a secret European intelligence alliance founded in 1969—provided crucial support for Israel’s subsequent assassination campaign against Palestinian operatives. This multinational intelligence network initially included Switzerland, West Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, the Netherlands, and Belgium, and later expanded to include the United States, Canada, Australia, and other nations. Through an encrypted communication system called “Kilowatt,” thousands of cables were exchanged among eighteen Western intelligence services after the system was established in 1971. The network functioned as a secret clearinghouse for raw intelligence. Shared reports contained the locations of safe houses, vehicle registrations, the movements of high-value targets, updates on Palestinian guerrilla tactics, and analytical assessments, all of which provided Israel with crucial operational support for its clandestine operations.
Direct American involvement in Israeli operations became particularly evident during the George W. Bush administration. The February 2008 assassination of Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus was reportedly approved by President Bush himself after being briefed by then-CIA Director Michael Hayden. This was not merely intelligence sharing but active operational participation. “The Mossad agent would ID Mughniyeh, and the CIA man would press the remote control,” a Newsweek report noted. The CIA designed and built the bomb that killed Mughniyeh, tested it at a secret facility in North Carolina, and smuggled it into Syria through Jordan, while Mossad provided intelligence and logistical support.
When it came to confronting Iran’s nuclear program, the United States and Israel collaborated on the creation of the Stuxnet computer virus in a joint operation codenamed “Olympic Games.” The malware was designed to sabotage centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility. According to Ronen Bergman, the virus was developed with input from Israeli cybersecurity experts alongside the U.S. National Security Agency. This operation represented a quadrilateral effort involving the CIA, NSA, Mossad, and Israel’s military intelligence agency, AMAN. It was conceived during the administrations of W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and ultimately executed in 2010 under President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The scope of American involvement extended to Israel’s broader targeted killing policies. Ronen Bergman revealed that during Ariel Sharon’s tenure, a secret deal was struck with then-U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice that committed Israel to “significantly reduce the construction of new settlements in exchange for American backing of the war with the Palestinians and of Israel’s targeted killing policy” of high-value Palestinian figures.
American intelligence cooperation facilitated Israel’s campaign against Iran’s nuclear program, with Melman documenting extensive Western knowledge of and potential involvement in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists between 2007-2012. The Obama administration was aware of the assassination campaign carried out by the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) terrorist organization, which was being financed, armed, and trained by Mossad. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) reportedly trained MEK members starting in 2005, and U.S. intelligence was providing crucial information for these operations. As one former senior intelligence official told investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, “the United States is now providing the intelligence” for assassinations carried out “primarily by MEK through liaison with the Israelis.”
Israeli dependency on foreign support went beyond Western allies to include collaborationist elements in the Arab world. Bergman revealed extensive details about Mossad’s regional cooperation during Meir Dagan’s tenure (2002-2010) as director of the Mossad, including secret partnerships with Arab intelligence services that publicly condemned Israel while privately cooperating with it. These arrangements involved joint operations with countries that “share more or less the same set of interests” despite public hostility, coordination in counter-terrorism operations across the Middle East, and partnerships that enabled many operations attributed solely to Mossad.
The pattern of foreign dependence continues in contemporary operations. An August 2025 ProPublica report by Yossi Melman and fellow journalist Dan Raviv showcased Israel’s enlistment of Iranian dissidents for executing missions inside Iran during “Operation Rising Lion.” They specifically outlined Mossad’s strategic shift from using Israeli personnel to cultivating a “foreign legion” of Iranian and regional operatives to carry out activities ranging from support functions to covert action.
This pattern of intelligence reporting by Melman and Bergman reveals that Israel’s reputation for independent intelligence capabilities obscures a reality of extensive foreign dependence, particularly on Western intelligence services, for conducting operations that extend Israeli influence and security interests globally.
Far from being a model of independence, Israel’s intelligence record underscores how deeply its operations are embedded in Western power structures. The myths of self-sufficiency and unmatched brilliance collapse under the weight of evidence: Mossad’s reach is extended only because Washington, European capitals, and even regional neighbors provide the pipelines of intelligence, technology, and manpower that make its operations possible.
The true scandal lies not in Israel’s dependency but in the willingness of other nations to abet its destabilizing campaigns by supplying the bombs, intelligence streams, and diplomatic cover that allow Tel Aviv to operate with impunity. To strip away the mythology is to confront the uncomfortable truth that Israel’s “miraculous” intelligence victories are collective endeavors, outsourced across continents, exposing not a triumph of independence but a parasitic reliance on collaborators who enable its shadow wars.
Ukraine conflict marks end of Western dominance – former French ambassador
RT | August 26, 2025
The Ukraine conflict has highlighted a gradual shift in the global balance of power and has signaled the end of Western supremacy, former French Ambassador to the US Gerard Araud has claimed.
“We are experiencing the end of an era,” Araud wrote in the French magazine Le Point on Sunday, adding that the collapse of the order inherited from the end of WWII means the West no longer dominates international affairs.
He argued that the Ukraine conflict has shown that Western leaders are unable to accept this change, describing it as revealing “to the point of caricature the incomprehension and rejection of the world to come by European leaders.”
Araud suggested that one of the main reasons behind this shift is that the US, under President Donald Trump, no longer wishes to serve as the world’s “policeman,” leader, and “protector.” Trump has scaled down Washington’s involvement in Ukraine, urged European NATO members to take greater responsibility for their own defense, and prioritized domestic issues.
While lamenting the decline of Western power, Araud admitted that global affairs have always been defined by “power relations” in which “the strong imposed their law on the weak.”
Moscow has also repeatedly insisted that Western hegemony has ended and that a multipolar world is emerging, with interests increasingly represented by BRICS and the Global South. Russian officials have argued that the Ukraine conflict confirms this transition.
In May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a high-level security forum in Moscow that the “tectonic shift” in world politics reflects the redistribution of power toward Eurasia, Africa, and Latin America.
He also dismissed Western claims that multipolarity would lead to “chaos and anarchy,” stating instead that unipolar dominance, characterized by sanctions, interventions, and economic coercion, had triggered the major crises of recent decades.
Russia has consistently described the Ukraine conflict as a proxy war waged by the West and maintained that any settlement must address Moscow’s security concerns and the root causes of the crisis, including NATO’s continued eastward expansion.
France has ruined its reputation as a free country – Durov
RT | August 24, 2025
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has said that France ruined its reputation as a free country by briefly detaining him last year.
Durov was arrested at a Paris airport in August 2024 on charges of allowing criminals to use his messenger for illegal activities, including extremism and child abuse. The Russian-born tech entrepreneur was later released on €5 million ($5.86 million) bail and allowed to return to Dubai, where he resides.
In a post on Telegram on Sunday, Durov described his detention as “unprecedented” and “legally and logically absurd.” He said the investigation had produced no evidence of wrongdoing, stressing that Telegram’s moderation practices follow industry standards and that the company has complied with all legally binding requests from French authorities.
Durov also claimed that French investigators bypassed EU-mandated legal channels when sending queries to the platform, a mistake he argued could have been avoided “simply by googling the process or asking.”
“Sadly, the only outcome of my arrest so far has been massive damage to France’s image as a free country,” Durov said, adding that he must still return to Paris every two weeks with no appeal date in sight.
Telegram has since updated its privacy policy to allow the collection of metadata, including IP addresses, device information, and username changes, for up to one year, with the option of handing it over to “relevant judicial authorities.”
Last month, Durov accused France of waging “a crusade” against free speech, claiming that intelligence officials had tried to pressure him into censoring conservative content during Romania’s 2024 presidential election. The French intelligence agency, the DGSE, later said it had merely “reminded” him of the responsibility to police content while denying election interference.
UK Ramps Up Ukraine Training as Europe’s War Hawks Push ‘Security Guarantees’
Sputnik – 24.08.2025
The British-led Operation Interflex, a multinational military initiative to train and support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has now been extended to at least 2026, Bloomberg reports.
Over 50,000 Ukrainian recruits have already received both combat and leadership training in the UK.
A further element of the plan involves a so-called US backstop, providing intelligence, border surveillance, weapons, and potentially air defenses, Bloomberg says.
Meanwhile, a UK and France-led “Coalition of the Willing” plans to station European forces in Ukraine as European war hawks push “security guarantees” tied to a potential peace deal.
Russia insists that any security guarantees for Ukraine must reference the 2022 Istanbul talks, and discussions about a security framework without Russia lead nowhere.
In essence, Europe is proposing foreign intervention on part of Ukrainian territory, which is absolutely unacceptable for Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed.
Europe lacks strategy to break snapback ‘deadlock’: Russia envoy
Press TV – August 23, 2025
A senior Russian diplomat says the European troika—Britain, France, and Germany—lack a clear strategy to break the “deadlock” they are poised to create if they follow through on their threat to invoke the “snapback” mechanism against Iran.
Russia’s permanent envoy to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, made the remarks in a post on his X account on Saturday.
He proposed to put aside legal and procedural issues which definitely do not give the E3 the right to trigger the snapback mechanism and to address the issue from a purely political viewpoint.
The Russian diplomat asked whether the trio has an exit strategy and a vision of how to find a way out of the deadlock they are going to create.
“The answers to these questions seem to be negative,” Ulyanov emphasized.
Snapback would bring into force six previous Iran-related Security Council resolutions adopted between 2006 and 2010. It would reinstate the expired UN arms embargo that barred countries from supplying, selling, or transferring most military equipment to Iran and prohibited Tehran from exporting any weapons.
It would also impose export controls, travel bans, asset freezes, and other restrictions on individuals, entities, and banks.
In a Friday phone conversation with the EU high representative for foreign and security policy and his British, French, and German counterparts, whose countries are the European signatories to the 2015 nuclear agreement, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that triggering the snapback would have consequences.
The top Iranian negotiator once again emphasized that the European countries lack the legal and moral authority to resort to the mechanism.
China’s mission to the United Nations on Wednesday declared the country’s firm opposition to threats by European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal to activate the snapback mechanism within the framework of UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
The mission at the UN headquarters in New York distributed an explanatory note to the Security Council, stating that the difficult situation in implementing the JCPOA and Resolution 2231 is not the result of Iran’s actions but the disruption of the JCPOA’s implementation by the United States and the three European countries.
China and Russia’s backing plays a critical role in Iran’s diplomatic efforts to counter the snapback threat. Both countries are permanent members of the UN Security Council and have veto power over resolutions, including those related to Iran’s nuclear program.
China says there’s no justification for JCPOA snapback activation
Press TV – August 20, 2025
China’s mission to the United Nations has declared the country’s firm opposition to threats by European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal to activate the “snapback” mechanism within the framework of UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
The mission at the UN headquarters in New York distributed an explanatory note to the Security Council, stating that the difficult situation in implementing the JCPOA and Resolution 2231 is not the result of Iran’s actions but the disruption of the JCPOA’s implementation by the United States and the three European countries.
The statement said this cannot be an excuse to restore the anti-Iran sanctions that had been lifted under the 2015 deal.
In the note, China warned that attempts to activate the snapback could have “unpredictable and catastrophic” consequences, destroying all the diplomatic achievements of recent years.
The document said any attempt by some countries to activate the “snapback” without following the legal process would be an abuse of the Security Council’s powers and duties and would be invalid.
The note underscored Iran’s right to peaceful use of nuclear energy as a member of the NPT, calling on all parties to adhere to dialogue, mutual respect, and finding solutions that address the legitimate concerns of the international community.
China concluded by stating that it will continue to play an active role in the negotiation process and called on the Security Council to, instead of creating obstacles, pave the way for a new and lasting agreement.
As the 2015 nuclear deal nears its official end, Iran is preparing for the removal of confidence-building curbs on its nuclear program.
However, the European signatories have threatened to invoke the “snapback” mechanism, which would restore all UN sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the deal.
Western media reports indicate that three European nations have agreed to activate the snapback by the end of August if a new nuclear deal is not reached.
This move would disrupt the successful conclusion of the current agreement.
The United States and Iran had been in talks to find a replacement for the 2015 deal, but these negotiations were halted following a surprise US-Israeli aggression against Iran.
In a show of support for Iran, Russia has also publicly opposed Europe’s activation of the snapback, distributing an explanatory note to declare its position.
Trump-Zelensky Talks: Europe’s Backdoor Play for Arms Industry’s Interests?

Sputnik – 17.08.2025
The German government announced on Sunday that Chancellor Friedrich Merz will travel to Washington, joining Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders for talks with US President Donald Trump.
Volodymyr Zelensky is flying to Washington to meet Donald Trump mainly to negotiate the possibility of retaining power, Polish political analyst Mateusz Piskorski told Sputnik.
During his upcoming talks with Trump, Zelensky wants to obtain potential personal security guarantees and to preserve his ability to continue ruling Ukraine for some time, Piskorski pointed out.
“If a full-fledged peace agreement on Ukraine is clinched, Zelensky will most likely be forced to organize elections, in which he has no real chance of winning,” the analyst emphasized.
He suggested that Zelensky will behave more cautiously than he did during his last meeting with Trump at the White House in late February.
European leaders who will reportedly accompany Zelensky, including Macron and Scholz, as well as NATO chief Rutte, will call for continuation of the Ukraine conflict as their interests are linked to the defense-industrial complex of France, Germany, and the UK, according to Piskorski.
In Germany, right after the announcement of the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska, the stock market and value of major German companies like Rheinmetall dropped by several percent — reportedly as much as 10%, the analyst concluded.

The following translation was performed free of charge to protest an injustice: the destruction by the ADL of Ariel Toaff’s Blood Passover on Jewish ritual murder. The author is the son of the Chief Rabbi of Rome, and a professor of Jewish Renaissance and Medieval History at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, just outside Tel Aviv.