In 2015, European Diplomacy Played a Central Role in Negotiations Over Iran's Nuclear Program

Six months after the conflict triggered by the US and Israel, Europe has been sidelined from the talks. Political scientist Pierre Ramond revisits the specific context of the 2015 agreement. On July 14, 2015, under the gilded ceilings of Vienna's Palais Coburg, representatives of the world's major powers signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), an agreement with Iran that limited the Islamic Republic's nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions.

This deal eased an international crisis and opened a new path for a peaceful reshaping of power dynamics in the Middle East. It was signed in Europe and marked the culmination of 12 years of negotiations initiated by Europeans. That moment marked the emergence of a European diplomacy, embodied by Federica Mogherini, the coordinator of those negotiations, who relied on a bureaucracy known as the European External Action Service – essentially a continental foreign ministry.

Eleven years later, on February 28, 2026, the US and Israel launched a bombing campaign on Iranian soil, which from the very first day of the conflict resulted in the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, several Iranian political and military leaders, and several thousand civilians, as well as the destruction of military and civilian infrastructure. At the same time, talks began between the US and Iran, with Pakistan acting as intermediary in Islamabad – this time to the east and not the west of Iran. The Europeans were not involved. raises a key question: How did Europeans come to play such a central role in the negotiations that led to the 2015 agreement, only to disappear from the scene after war broke out in 2025 and continued into 2026?

To answer that question, we must first look beyond political theater. A sociological study conducted with nearly all the main European diplomats involved in these negotiations reveals that, contrary to what one might assume, talks with Iran over its nuclear program did not foster the development of a unified European diplomacy; instead, they deepened its fragmentation.