United Kingdom’s Ambassador to the United Nations Barbara Woodward, accompanied by other E3 members German Ambassador Ricklef Beutin and Deputy French Ambassador Jay Dharmadhikari, speaks to members of the press about Iran and nuclear weapons outside the UN Security Council chamber at UN Headquarters in New York City, US, Aug. 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Angelina Katsanis

Germany has told its nationals to leave Iran and refrain from traveling there to avoid getting caught in retaliatory acts by Tehran over Germany‘s role in triggering UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

Britain, France, and Germany on Thursday launched a 30-day process to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program, a step likely to stoke tensions two months after Israel and the United States bombed Iran.

“As Iranian government representatives have repeatedly threatened with consequences in this case, it cannot be ruled out that German interests and nationals will be affected by countermeasures in Iran,” the foreign ministry said in a statement posted on its website on Thursday.

“Currently, the German Embassy in Tehran can only provide limited consular assistance on site,” it warned.

Britain, France, and Germany urged Iran at the United Nations on Friday to meet three requirements so their threat of reimposing UN sanctions can be delayed to allow space for talks on a deal to address their concerns about Tehran’s nuclear program.

UN envoys for the three countries – known as the E3 – issued a joint statement before a closed-door Security Council meeting.

The E3 offered to delay reinstating sanctions – known as snapback – for up to six months if Iran restored access for UN nuclear inspectors, addressed concerns about its stock of enriched uranium, and engaged in talks with the United States.

“Our asks were fair and realistic,” said Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward, who read the statement. “However, as of today, Iran has shown no indication that it is serious about meeting them.”

“We urge Iran to reconsider this position, to reach an agreement based on our offer, and to help create the space for a diplomatic solution to this issue for the long term,” she said, with her German and French counterparts standing next to her.

In response, Iran‘s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said the E3 offer was “full of unrealistic preconditions.”

“They are demanding conditions that should be the outcome of negotiations, not the starting point, and they know these demands cannot be met,” he told reporters.

Iravani said the E3 should instead back “a short, unconditional technical extension of Resolution 2231,” which enshrines a 2015 nuclear deal that lifted UN and Western sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

SINO-RUSSIAN DRAFT

Russia and China have proposed a draft UN Security Council resolution that would extend the 2015 deal for six months and urge all parties to immediately resume negotiations. But they have not yet asked for a vote.

The pair, strategic allies of Iran, have removed controversial language from the draft – which they initially proposed on Sunday – that would have blocked the E3 from reimposing UN sanctions on Iran.

Iravani described the Russian and Chinese draft resolution as a practical step to give diplomacy more time. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the US, France, Britain, China, or Russia.

UN nuclear inspectors have returned to Iran for the first time since it suspended cooperation with them after attacks in June on its nuclear sites by Israel and the United States. But Iran has not yet reached an agreement on how it would resume full work with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Relatives of Ilan Weiss, a victim of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, gather at his burned home during a ceremony marking one year since the deadly attack, in Kibbutz Beeri, southern Israel, Oct. 7, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Amir Cohen

Israel has recovered the body of hostage Ilan Weiss from the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday.

The remains of a second hostage, whose name had yet to be released for publication, were also retrieved, the statement added.

Weiss, 55, a resident of Kibbutz Be’eri, in southern Israel, was kidnapped from his home and killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack by Hamas, the Israeli military said.

His wife, Shiri, and daughter, Noga, were also abducted and later released as part of a hostage-prisoner swap deal in November 2023.

With Weiss‘s body recovered, Israel says 49 hostages remain in Gaza, of whom only 20 are believed to be alive.

The prime minister’s office said the campaign to return the hostages was ongoing. “We will neither rest nor be silent until we bring all of our hostages back home, the living and the deceased,” the statement said.

Around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in Gaza.

Soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China attend a training ahead of a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in Beijing, China, Aug. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Chinese President Xi Jinping will be flanked by leaders of some of the world’s most heavily sanctioned nations – Russia, North Korea, Iran, and Myanmar – at a military parade next week in Beijing, in a show of solidarity against the West.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un will attend “Victory Day” parade on September 3 marking the end of World War II after Japan’s formal surrender – the first time they have appeared in public alongside Xi.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is also expected to be on the dais as tens of thousands of troops march through the Chinese capital, completing a quartet that Western political and economic analysts have described as the Axis of Upheaval.

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who rarely travels abroad, will also attend, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Almost no Western leaders will be among the 26 foreign heads of state or government attending the parade, which political analysts say will demonstrate Xi‘s influence over nations intent on reshaping the Western-led global order.

“Xi Jinping is trying to showcase that he is very strong, that he is still powerful and well received in China,” said Alfred Wu, Associate Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

“When Xi was just a regional leader, he looked up to Putin, and saw the kind of leader he could learn from – and now he is a global leader. Having Kim alongside him, as well, highlights how Xi is now also a global leader.”

A loose coalition of states bent on reshaping the Western-led global order, the “Axis of Upheaval” has sought to undermine US interests, whether over Taiwan or by blocking shipping lanes, and sought to undermine Western sanctions by providing economic lifelines to each other, the analysts say.

The only Western heads of state or government attending the events in Beijing are Robert Fico, the prime minister of European Union member state Slovakia, and Aleksander Vucic, the president of Serbia.

Fico has been an opponent of sanctioning Russia for its war against Ukraine and has broken ranks with the EU by visiting Moscow. Vucic also visited Moscow in May and wants good relations with Russia and China but says Serbia remains committed to joining the EU.

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

Russia, which Beijing counts as a strategic partner, has been hit by multiple rounds of Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with its economy on the brink of slipping into recession.

Putin, wanted by the International Criminal Court over accusations of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, last traveled in China in 2024. He is largely ostracized by the West and avoided making major concessions over Ukraine as US President Donald Trump struggles to end the war there.

North Korea, a formal treaty ally of China’s, has been under United Nations Security Council sanctions since 2006 over its development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Kim last visited China in January 2019.

China, the world’s second-largest economy, buys some 90 percent of Iran’s sanctioned oil exports, and continues to source rare earth metals critical to the manufacture of wind turbines, medical devices, and electric vehicles from Myanmar.

Other leaders attending what will be one of China’s largest parades in years include Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, and South Korea’s National Assembly Speaker, Woo Won-shik, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hong Lei told a press conference.

The United Nations will be represented by Under-Secretary-General Li Junhua, who previously served in various capacities at the Chinese foreign ministry, including time as the Chinese ambassador to Italy, San Marino and Myanmar.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will attend the parade, Hong said. He did not mention any guests from Italy or Germany, the two other Axis Powers during World War II.