European concerns raise prospect of renewed U.N. sanctions on Iran

FILE PHOTO: An Iranian flag flutters in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters in Vienna, Austria September 9, 2019. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo

PARIS/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europe's threat to trigger a mechanism that could reimpose United Nations sanctions on Iran marks a significant breakdown in diplomacy to try to save the 2015 nuclear deal and could presage its death knell, diplomats say.

Britain, France and Germany have sought to salvage the pact, under which Iran undertook to curtail its uranium enrichment programme in return for relief from sanctions crippling its economy, since the United States withdrew last year.