European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas at a meeting of EU defense ministers in Copenhagen on Aug. 29, 2025. (Credit: Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/Reuters)
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Friday the coming weeks offered an "opportunity" to hammer out a diplomatic solution on Iran's nuclear program, after European powers triggered a 30-day deadline for sanctions to come back into force.
"We are entering a new phase with these 30 days, which is now giving us also the opportunity to really find diplomatic ways to find a solution," Kallas told journalists.
"We have 30 days to sort things out," she added.
France, Britain and Germany on Thursday set off a mechanism that could reimpose United Nations sanctions on Iran in 30 days for failing to comply with commitments over its nuclear programme it agreed to a decade ago.
That came after weeks of warnings over Iran's alleged breaches of the 2015 agreement with world powers to curb its nuclear program. The sanctions were suspended under the deal.
Iran warned that it would "respond appropriately" to the step, which risks ending the most sustained diplomatic push in years for a peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.
However, the United Nations has also stated that the next 30 days represent a "window of opportunity" to strike a new deal.
France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that "Iran's nuclear escalation must not go any further," but emphasized that the move "does not signal the end of diplomacy."
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