October 5, 2025 | The National Interest
Zero Enrichment Is Back. The US and Europe Must Enforce It.
Iran is not hesitating to rebuild its nuclear program. A zero-enrichment policy is the only way to prevent further nuclear proliferation.
October 5, 2025 | The National Interest
Zero Enrichment Is Back. The US and Europe Must Enforce It.
Iran is not hesitating to rebuild its nuclear program. A zero-enrichment policy is the only way to prevent further nuclear proliferation.
Excerpt
It’s back to the future on Iran policy. On September 27, the UN Security Council officially restored multilateral sanctions against Iran that were lifted or set to expire under the 2015 nuclear deal and its implementing UN resolution. With the “snapback” of sanctions complete, Iran is again subject to bans on enriching uranium and reprocessing plutonium—key materials needed to create nuclear weapons. Moreover, thanks to US and Israeli strikes in June, Tehran currently lacks operational plants to produce them.
To hold the line and ensure Iran can never again resurrect a multi-decade nuclear crisis, America and Europe must enforce a standard of zero production of nuclear fuel for the Islamic Republic.
On August 28, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany—known as the E3—triggered a 30-day process to re-sanction Iran. This came in response to Tehran’s longstanding nonproliferation violations, refusal to restore international monitoring of its nuclear program following the June strikes, and obstinacy in negotiating enduring nuclear restrictions.
In a tough diplomatic fight, last Friday, Russia, China, Pakistan, and Algeria voted to stop snapback, but nine countries overruled them, including America, the UK, and France. Punishing sanctions under prior UN Iran resolutions passed between 2006 and 2010 went back into effect at midnight on Sunday, September 28.
Andrea Stricker is deputy director of the Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program and a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow her on X @StrickerNonpro. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.