Iran International:

Friday’s talks between Iran and European powers made no progress, Axios and the Wall Street Journal reported, as a deadline looms for the reimposition of UN sanctions on Tehran under the so-called snapback mechanism.

The E3 have warned Iran they would restore UN sanctions by the end of August unless it reopened talks on its nuclear program immediately and produced concrete results before the deadline.

Iran is set to resume its nuclear talks with France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (the E3) on August 26, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday following a phone call with his British, French, and German counterparts as well as the EU foreign policy chief.

Despite the planned meeting, the Wall Street Journal correspondent Laurence Norman and Axios's Barak Ravid said the talks did not make any progress.

"The Iranian foreign minister didn't come with any new proposal or idea on addressing concerns regarding the nuclear program," Axios reported citing an informed source.

The Axios report said the call started "in a confrontational tone with the Iranian foreign minister ranting about whether E3 have the right to trigger snapback."

“After E3 pushback, Araghchi expressed some openness to an extension of the snapback but stressed this is for the United Nations Security Council to decide, not for Iran,” the report said citing an unnamed source.

On Friday, Iran's top security official rejected the European proposal for the extension of the August deadline, saying, "Some countries have requested a six-month extension [of snapback deadline], but Iran does not agree."

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