Tehran says Istanbul talks offer Europe a chance to correct course

The proposal is expected to be presented during talks in Istanbul on Friday, the first direct meeting between European officials and Iranian negotiators since Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, which briefly involved the US, FT reported on Friday.

The offer would postpone the so-called snapback mechanism tied to the 2015 nuclear deal, which could automatically reinstate UN sanctions as early as mid-September unless Iran returns to negotiations. Any extension would likely require a UN Security Council resolution, diplomats told FT.

Iran says Europe lacks legal standing

Iran’s foreign ministry dismissed the European proposal as both illegitimate and irrelevant. “When the premise of restoring sanctions has no legal or logical basis, and the European parties themselves lack the authority to take such action, then talk of extending Resolution 2231 is doubly meaningless and groundless,” ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Friday.

He added that the European trio had disqualified themselves by violating their own commitments under the 2015 deal and backing US and Israeli military action. “The Istanbul meeting is a chance for them to correct course, if they want to avoid further eroding their credibility.”

Iran insists enrichment will continue

Iran has suspended cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency since the June strikes on its nuclear facilities. However, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said this week that a technical team from the agency would visit Tehran soon to discuss a “new modality” for cooperation, excluding access to nuclear sites.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state television on Thursday that the upcoming talks did not signal any shift in Tehran’s position. “Uranium enrichment will continue and we will not compromise on the Iranian nation’s rights,” he said.

Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, while the US maintains that Tehran must abandon enrichment before talks resume. The IAEA has said Iran could restart uranium production “within months.”

The research concentrates from 2017 to summer 2025, on reservoirs like Amir Kabir (Karaj), Lar and Latyan in Iran.

Newly released images show that in no previous period has the decline in water reserves at these reservoirs been as severe as in the summer of 2025.

“This could be summed up in one term: water bankruptcy,” Kaveh Madani, head of the United Nations University's Water, Environment and Health Institute said after observing the satellite images.

“The situation is not merely a crisis but a state of failure, as some of the damage is irreversible,” Madani added.

Amir Kabir Reservoir, one of the key sources of drinking water for Tehran and agricultural use in Alborz Province with a storage capacity of over 200 million cubic meters currently holds only about six percent of its usable volume.

Tehran on the brink of thirst

Iran has recently faced an unprecedented heatwave, and many natural and engineered water reservoirs across the country particularly in Tehran, Alborz and Fars provinces are nearly depleted.

In the capital Tehran, officials have attempted to curb consumption through emergency measures, including repeated water and electricity outages and temporary office closures on certain days.

"While dams have played a major role in development and cannot be completely dismissed, the overreliance on these structures and the absence of sound policymaking have been grave mistakes,” Madani said.

"You cannot keep expanding Tehran forever and expect the skies to keep raining or the aquifers to keep producing water,” Madani added.

Lar Reservoir, with a capacity of about 960 million cubic meters, supplies drinking water to parts of eastern and northern Tehran. Its reserves have now fallen below 10 percent.

Water scarcity, infrastructure erosion

Latyan Reservoir, another key source for eastern Tehran is now operating at just about 10 percent of its 95 million cubic meter capacity. In addition to drinking water, the reservoir also plays a role in seasonal flood control, and its sharp decline poses multi-dimensional risks.

The drop in Latyan Dam’s reservoir level has severely impacted both drinking water supplies and the ecological functioning of the surrounding system.

Exposure of policy failures

The satellite images reveal go beyond a seasonal drop. Tehran traditionally sources around 60 to 70 percent of its drinking water from the Lar, Latian, and Amir Kabir reservoirs. The simultaneous depletion of all three—coupled with the overdrawn state of groundwater resources—has placed the capital at risk of a systemic water crisis.

"The dramatic reduction in water volumes at Tehran’s reservoirs is not just a passing warning, but evidence of a structural failure in the country's water resource management,” said Roozbeh Eskandari, an environmental researcher.

“If this trend continues, the capital could face widespread drinking water rationing, loss of agricultural land, further depletion of aquifers and even social unrest,” Eskandari added. “The crisis is the result of a complex interplay of climate change, uncontrolled consumption growth, and poor governance in the water sector.”

"The Soviet Union collapsed without a revolution. A transformation is possible. But in Iran, I fear change will be violent, and the current regime will not go quietly," Issa said.

US President Donald Trump mooted regime change and even killing Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the height of combat amid a 12-day war between Iran and Israel last month.

As a ceasefire took hold, the administration backed away from the hawkish rhetoric but a senior Trump aide said this week that change could only come from within.

Issa, whose constituency south of Los Angeles is home to many Iranian-Americans, criticized Iranian opposition groups and exiled figures, saying their disagreements undermined their goal of toppling Tehran.

"They spend more time attacking each other than working together. That’s a strategic failure. If they were united, I believe regime change would already be underway."

A series of mass protests triggered by the death of a young Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, in morality police custody in 2022 led to nationwide protests which challenged Tehran's authority but were quashed with deadly force.

Congressman Issa also advocated for intensifying pressure on Tehran, calling for the full implementation of Trump's maximum pressure campaign.

"Take those ships, empty them in friendly ports, and don’t let them sail again," he said, referring to vessels carrying Iranian oil. "Cut off Iran’s oil revenue, and you’ll cripple the regime."

Asked about countries like China that continue to buy Iranian oil, Issa suggested offering alternative energy sources.

"I don’t want to deny China oil, but they shouldn’t get it from Iran. We must make it very expensive for Iran to raise revenue for its oppressive regime."

One of the first steps the Trump administration took against Iran was the reimposition of the maximum pressure campaign from his first term which aims at halting Tehran's oil revenues.

But in June, Donald Trump announced China could continue to purchase oil from Iran.

Turning to a bipartisan bill that would allow Israel access to advanced US military technology such as stealth aircraft and bunker-buster bombs, Issa was skeptical.

"Our stealth capability is unmatched. If strikes are necessary, we don’t need to hand over those weapons — we can do it ourselves, as President Trump demonstrated," Issa said.

The United States attacked Iran’s three main nuclear sites at Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan on June 24.

“The discussions that will be held tomorrow are a continuation of previous talks. Our position is completely clear,” Abbas Araghchi was quoted as saying by Iran’s official IRNA.

“The world must know that there has been no change in our position, and we continue to firmly and resolutely defend the rights of the Iranian people to peaceful nuclear energy, particularly enrichment.”

The meeting with the three European powers, collectively known as the E3, will be the first since last month’s US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

It comes as pressure mounts ahead of the October expiry of a 2015 nuclear deal which remains in effect among Iran, the E3, China and Russia after the United States withdrew in 2018. The accord lifted international sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program.

Washington and its European allies have set an end-of-August deadline for Iran to reach a nuclear deal or face the reimposition of full UN sanctions under the JCPOA’s snapback mechanism.

Under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, any party to the accord can file a complaint accusing Iran of non-compliance.

If no agreement is reached within 30 days to maintain sanctions relief, all previous UN sanctions would automatically “snapback,” including arms embargoes, cargo inspections and missile restrictions.

Snapback mechanism focus of Istanbul talks

The meeting in Istanbul on Friday will be focused on the snapback mechanism, Reuters reported earlier on Thursday, citing diplomats from Europe, the Middle East and Iran.

The E3 is due to float the possibility to Iran of extending the snapback mechanism by up to six months, the report said.

In return, Iran would need to make commitments on key issues, including eventual talks with Washington, full cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, and accounting for its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

On Wednesday, twenty US senators sponsored a resolution urging the E3 to trigger the snapback mechanism on Iran as soon as possible.

A day earlier, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Washington is open to direct talks with Iran but the next move must come from Tehran.

The defendant, identified as Mohamed Orahhou, a Norwegian national in his 20s, was arrested in November 2024. He is accused of collecting and passing classified information that prosecutors say could damage Norway’s national security and undermine the safety of US diplomatic staff.

According to the indictment filed by Norway’s National Authority for Prosecution of Organized and Other Serious Crime, Orahhou shared a wide range of sensitive material between March and November 2023.

Orahhou allegedly passed on a classified list of couriers from Norway’s intelligence service; names, addresses, and phone numbers of US Embassy staff, diplomats, and their family members; embassy floor plans and evacuation routes; security procedures and equipment details; records of pre-booked visits; and photos of garage facilities and communications infrastructure.

Prosecutors allege that the information was handed over to Russian and Iranian agents in clandestine meetings in Norway, Serbia, and Turkey.

In exchange, Orahhou received €10,000 from Russian authorities and 0.17 Bitcoin—then worth approximately $10,000—from Iranian operatives. The indictment also includes charges of tax fraud.

According to the indictment, Orahhou attempted to conceal the payments by channeling them through family members’ and friends’ bank accounts before retrieving the funds.

Orahhou is charged under Norwegian espionage laws, which carry a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors argue that the information he passed on “violated fundamental national interests” and posed a significant security risk to both Norway and the United States.

His defense attorneys, Inger Zadig and John Christian Elden, confirmed that Orahhou acknowledges the factual elements of the indictment but denies that his actions meet the legal criteria for espionage.

“At its core, this case concerns legal interpretation—specifically, whether and to what extent the information in question was ‘classified’ under the law, and whether it was capable of harming fundamental national interests,” Zadig said in an email to the Associated Press. “If not, then sharing the information is not a criminal offense.”

“Our client did not hold a security clearance, and his access to information that could threaten vital national interests was more or less non-existent. These issues will be thoroughly addressed in court,” she added in a message to The New York Times.

Following his arrest in November, Orahhou admitted to interrogators that he had shared information with an officer from Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR), as well as with unidentified Iranian officials. Authorities also reported seizing a “large” volume of digital material from his home, which they are continuing to analyze.

At the time, Orahhou was also studying for a bachelor’s degree in security and preparedness at Norway’s Arctic University (UiT) and operated a private security company.

His trial is scheduled to begin on August 19 in Oslo District Court, with two weeks allotted for proceedings.

The case has emerged against the backdrop of growing concerns across Europe over a surge in espionage activities linked to Russia and Iran.

A study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies found that suspected Russian sabotage operations in Europe nearly quadrupled between 2023 and 2024.

Meanwhile, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said in October 2024 that the UK had disrupted at least 20 Iranian-backed plots posing potentially lethal threats to British citizens.