Iranian parliament drafts urgent bill to withdraw from Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

The Cradle, August 29,2025 —

The move comes in response to European powers triggering snapback sanctions despite IAEA inspectors returning to Iran.

Iranian lawmakers drafted an emergency bill on 28 August to pull the country out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), marking Tehran’s first legislative response to the decision by France, Germany, and the UK to revive UN sanctions.

Hossein-Ali Haji-Deligani, deputy chairman of parliament’s Article 90 Committee, said the draft would be registered in the legislature’s internal system before being debated in open session next week.

“This step represents the most basic reaction by parliament to what has happened, and it will be followed by other measures that will make the countries that pushed for the activation of the snapback mechanism regret their actions,” Deligani told Tasnim news agency.

He accused the Iranian Foreign Ministry of wasting time with what he described as pointless dialogue.

“We have a serious criticism of the performance of the diplomatic team and the Foreign Minister in dealing with these three countries, which are themselves the source of many problems in the world. If those pointless contacts and negotiations had not taken place, we would not now be facing the announcement of the snapback mechanism,” he said.

Deligani also dismissed the European announcement as nothing new. “As expected, Germany, France, and Britain have announced the activation of this mechanism. As we said earlier, these countries had already been applying the consequences of the snapback mechanism, including sanctions, even before its official announcement.”

The lawmaker described the bill as a minimal first step but warned that the parliament is preparing additional “regret-inducing measures.”

Tehran’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the three EU powers had formally delivered their notice. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denounced the decision as “illegal and unjustified,” and pledged that Tehran would respond “appropriately to protect and guarantee its national rights and interests.”

In phone calls with his EU counterparts, the foreign minister urged them to “appropriately correct this wrong decision in the coming days” and warned that London, Paris, and Berlin could be shut out of any future talks on Iran’s nuclear program.

The E3 announcement coincided with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors returning to Iran to supervise fuel work at the Bushehr nuclear facility under a new security framework.

European officials claim the measure was unavoidable after negotiations in Geneva collapsed without commitments, insisting that Iran’s enrichment activities left them no option but to act.

China and Russia rejected the European step as unlawful and tabled a draft resolution to extend Resolution 2231 for six months. Russian envoy Dmitry Polyanskiy said the Security Council must choose between diplomacy and coercion.

Iran’s UN mission said the E3 response to the Russian-Chinese proposal will reveal whether they favor dialogue or escalation.