UNITED NATIONS — Iran and the United States reaffirmed their commitments to diplomacy at a contentious meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, but the gap between the Trump administration and the Islamic Republic on a nuclear deal remains wide and deep.

The sixth round of negotiations between Washington and Tehran had been scheduled for soon after Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June, during which the U.S. joined Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear sites. The talks were canceled, and in September Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected any direct nuclear negotiations with the United States.

But Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told the Security Council that “Iran remains fully committed to principled diplomacy and genuine negotiations.” And said it’s now up to France, Britain and the U.S. “to reverse course and take concrete, credible steps to restore trust and confidence.”

He said Iran remains committed to the core principles of the 2015 nuclear deal aimed at preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, in which Iran had agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

President Donald Trump in 2018 pulled the U.S. out of the agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the Security Council, plus Germany.

In a rare public exchange between diplomats from the two countries, U.S. Mission counselor Morgan Ortagus, a Trump ally and former State Department spokesperson, said, “The United States remains available for formal talks with Iran but only if Tehran is prepared for direct and meaningful dialogue.”

Ortagus said Trump extended “the hand of diplomacy” to Iran during both of his administrations.

“But instead of taking that hand of diplomacy, you continue to put your hand in the fire,” she said, looking directly at Iravani. “Step away from the fire, sir, and take President Trump’s hand of diplomacy. It’s extended to you.”

She stressed, however, that the Trump administration has been clear that there can be no enrichment of nuclear material inside Iran, a major point of contention.

Irvani said the U.S. insistence on zero enrichment was contrary to Iran’s rights under the 2015 deal and showed the U.S. was not pursuing fair negotiations. He said if France and Britain continued to side with the U.S., “diplomacy will be effectively destroyed.”

“Iran will not bow down to any pressure and intimidation,” Irvani said.

In September, the agreement’s three Western members — Britain, France and Germany — triggered a “snapback” mechanism to reinstate the sanctions that had been lifted, citing Iran’s failure to comply with the deal’s conditions.

As tensions between Tehran and Washington have increased, Iran has accelerated its production of uranium to near weapons-grade. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, has reported that Iran has over 440 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60% — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

France’s deputy U.N. ambassador Jay Dharmadhikari defended the “snapback” of U.N. sanctions, saying that since 2019 Iran has been in “increasingly flagrant violation” of all limitations designed to guarantee that its nuclear program remains peaceful. But he said the reimposition of sanctions does not mean the end of efforts to find a diplomatic solution.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia shot back, telling the French envoy: “You failed miserably in your so-called diplomatic efforts to strike a deal on the nuclear issue with Iran, and you know it.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Nations reimposed sanctions on Iran early Sunday over its nuclear program, further squeezing the Islamic Republic as its people increasingly find themselves priced out of the food they need to survive and worried about their futures.

After last-minute diplomacy failed at the U.N., the sanctions took effect Sunday at 0000 GMT (8 p.m. Eastern).

The sanctions will again freeze Iranian assets abroad, halt arms deals with Tehran, and penalize any development of Iran’s ballistic missile program, among other measures. It came via a mechanism known as “snapback,” included in Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, and comes as Iran’s economy already is reeling.

Iran’s rial currency sits at a record low, increasing pressure on food prices and making daily life that much more challenging. That includes meat, rice and other staples of the Iranian dinner table.

Meanwhile, people worry about a new round of fighting between Iran and Israel — as well as potentially the United States — as missile sites struck during the 12-day war in June now appear to be being rebuilt.

Activists fear a rising wave of repression within the Islamic Republic, which already has reportedly executed more people this year than over the past three decades.

Sina, the father of a 12-year-old boy who spoke on condition that only his first name be used for fear of repercussions, said the country has never faced such a challenging time, even during the deprivations of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war and the decades of sanctions that came later.

“For as long as I can remember, we’ve been struggling with economic hardship, and every year it’s worse than the last,” Sina told The Associated Press. “For my generation, it’s always either too late or too early — our dreams are slipping away.”

Snapback was designed to be veto-proof at the U.N. Security Council, meaning China and Russia could not stop it alone, as they have other proposed actions against Tehran in the past. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called them a “trap” for Iran on Saturday.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered snapback over Iran 30 days ago for its further restricting monitoring of its nuclear program and the deadlock over its negotiations with the U.S.

Iran further withdrew from the International Atomic Energy Agency monitoring after Israel’s war on the country in June, which also saw the U.S. strike nuclear sites in the Islamic Republic. Meanwhile, the country still maintains a stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90% — that is largely enough to make several atomic bombs, should Tehran choose to rush toward weaponization.

Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, though the West and IAEA say Tehran had an organized weapons program up until 2003.

Tehran has further argued that the three European nations shouldn’t be allowed to implement snapback, pointing in part to America’s unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018, during the first term of President Donald Trump’s administration.

“The Trump administration appears to think it has a stronger hand post-strikes, and it can wait for Iran to come back to the table,” said Kelsey Davenport, a nuclear expert at the Washington-based Arms Control Association. “Given the knowledge Iran has, given the materials that remain in Iran, that’s a very dangerous assumption.”

Risks also remain for Iran as well, she added: “In the short term, kicking out the IAEA increases the risk of miscalculation. The U.S. or Israel could use the lack of inspections as a pretext for further strikes.”

Iran on Saturday recalled its ambassadors to France, Germany and the U.K. for consultations ahead of the sanctions being reimposed, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised the three European nations for “an act of decisive global leadership” for imposing the sanctions on Iran.

“President Trump has been clear that diplomacy is still an option — a deal remains the best outcome for the Iranian people and the world,” Rubio said in a statement. “For that to happen, Iran must accept direct talks.”

The aftermath of the June war drove up food prices in Iran, putting already expensive meat out of reach for poorer families.

Iran’s government put overall annual inflation at 34.5% in June, and its Statistical Center reported that the cost of essential food items rose over 50% over the same period. But even that doesn’t reflect what people see at shops. Pinto beans tripled in price in a year, while butter nearly doubled. Rice, a staple, rose more than 80% on average, hitting 100% for premium varieties. Whole chicken is up 26%, while beer and lamb are up 9%.

“Every day I see new higher prices for cheese, milk and butter,” said Sima Taghavi, a mother of two, at a Tehran grocery. “I cannot omit them like fruits and meat from my grocery list because my kids are too young to be deprived.”

The pressure over food and fears about the war resuming have seen more patients heading to psychologists since June, local media in Iran have reported.

“The psychological pressure from the 12-day war on the one hand, and runaway inflation and price hikes on the other, has left society exhausted and unmotivated,” Dr. Sima Ferdowsi, a clinical psychologist and professor at Shahid Beheshti University, told the Hamshahri newspaper in an interview published in July.

“If the economic situation continues like this, it will have serious social and moral consequences,” she warned, with the newspaper noting “people may do things they would never think of doing in normal circumstances to survive.”

Iran has faced multiple nationwide protests in recent years, fueled by anger over the economy, demands for women’s rights and calls for the country’s theocracy to change. The most recent came in 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died after being detained by police allegedly for not wearing her hijab, or headscarf, to their liking.

In response to those protests and the June war, Iran has been putting prisoners to death at a pace unseen since 1988, when it executed thousands at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights and the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran put the number of people executed in 2025 at over 1,000, noting the number could be higher as Iran does not report on each execution.

“Political and civic space in Iran has shrunk to nothing, and outside Iran, civil society activists and dissidents face transnational repression,” the center warned. “The Iranian people, millions of whom aspire to more than a closed and brutal theocracy, have tried every option within their reach. Their leaders have not.”

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Vahdat reported from Tehran, Iran. Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this report. ___

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said early Thursday that he plans to designate antifa as a “major terrorist organization.”

Antifa, short for short for “anti-fascists,” is an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups and is not a singular entity. They consist of groups that resist fascists and neo-Nazis, especially at demonstrations.

It’s unclear how the administration would label what is effectively a decentralized movement as a terrorist organization, and the White House on Wednesday did not immediately offer more details.

Trump, who is on a state visit to the United Kingdom, made the announcement in a social media post shortly before 1:30 a.m. Thursday local time. He called antifa a “SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER.” He also said he will be “strongly recommending” that funders of antifa be investigated.

Trump’s previous FBI director, Christopher Wray, said in testimony in 2020 that antifa is an ideology, not an organization, lacking the hierarchical structure that would usually allow it to be designated as a terror group by the federal government.

After Trump’s post, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., praised the announcement, saying: “Antifa seized upon a movement of legitimate grievances to promote violence and anarchy, working against justice for all. The President is right to recognize the destructive role of Antifa by designating them domestic terrorists.”

In July 2019, Cassidy and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced a resolution in the Senate to condemn the violent acts of antifa and to designate the group a domestic terror organization.

LONDON — LONDON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump will make an unprecedented second state visit to the U.K. between Sept. 17 and 19 when he will be hosted by King Charles II and Queen Camilla at Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace said Monday.

Trump, who is a big supporter of the royal family, particularly of the monarch, will be accompanied by his wife, Melania Trump during the three-day visit, the palace confirmed.

No U.S. president has been invited for a second state visit. Trump previously enjoyed the pomp and pageantry of the state visit in 2019 during his first term when he was hosted by Charles’ late mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

The invitation for the second state visit from the king was hand-delivered by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in February during a meeting at the White House.

After reading it, Trump said it was a “great, great honor” and appeared particularly pleased by the fact he will be staying at Windsor Castle, to the west of the capital. “That’s really something,” he said.

Precedent for second-term U.S. presidents who have already made a state visit is usually tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

State visits are ceremonial meetings between heads of state that are used to honor friendly nations and sometimes smooth relations between rivals. While the king formally issues the invitation for a state visit, he does so on the advice of the elected government.

The visit is seen as part of Starmer’s effort to keep Trump close and lessen the impact of some of his polices on the U.K. The relationship between the two appears amicable, and has helped the U.K. from facing the sort of hefty U.S. tariffs that other nations are seeing.

But like Trump’s previous visit, it’s unlikely he will be welcomed by all. Last time, a day of protests saw the flying of a giant blimp depicting Trump as an angry orange baby from outside Parliament.

Lawmakers from Starmer’s Labour Party have also questioned whether the honor should be extended to Trump at a time that he is supporting Israel’s war in Gaza and threatening the sovereignty of allies such as Canada and Greenland.

Charles could also face some challenges during the visit because he is head of state of both the United Kingdom and Canada, which Trump has suggested should become the 51st U.S. state. During a speech to the Canadian parliament in May the king highlighted Canada’s “unique identity” and “sovereignty,” while echoing the words of the country’s national anthem when he said “The True North is indeed strong and free.”

State visits to Britain are particularly prized by heads of state because they come with a full complement of royal pomp and circumstance, including military reviews, carriage rides and a glittering state banquet hosted by the monarch.

The events normally take place in and around Buckingham Palace in central London. But like last week’s state visit from French President Emmanual Macron and his wife Brigitte, the Trumps will stay at Windsor Castle. Buckingham Palace is undergoing extensive remodeling.

LONDON — French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Britain on Tuesday for a state visit mixing royal pageantry with thorny political talks about stopping migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats.

Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer will also try to advance plans for a post-ceasefire security force for Ukraine, despite apparent U.S. indifference to the idea and Russia’s refusal to halt the onslaught on its neighbor.

Macron’s three-day visit, at the invitation of King Charles III, is the first state visit to the U.K. by a European Union head of state since Brexit, and a symbol of the British government’s desire to reset relations with the bloc that the U.K. acrimoniously left in 2020.

The president and his wife, Brigitte Macron, will be driven to Windsor Castle by horse-drawn carriage, greeted by a military honor guard and treated to a state banquet hosted by the king and Queen Camilla. The British royals made a state visit to France in September 2023.

Macron also will address both houses of Britain’s Parliament in the building’s fabulously ornate Royal Gallery before sitting down for talks with Starmer on migration, defense and investment.

At a U.K.-France summit on Thursday, senior government officials from the two countries will discuss small-boat crossings, a thorny issue for successive governments on both sides of the channel.

Britain receives fewer asylum-seekers than Mediterranean European countries, but thousands of migrants each year use northern France as a launching point to reach the U.K., either by stowing away in trucks or — after a clampdown on that route — in small boats across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

The U.K. has struck a series of deals with France over the years to increase patrols of beaches and share intelligence in an attempt to disrupt the smuggling gangs.

It has all had only a limited impact. About 37,000 people were detected crossing the English Channel in small boats in 2024, the second-highest annual figure after 46,000 in 2022. More than 20,000 people made the crossing in the first six months of 2025, up by about 50% from the same period last year. Dozens of people have died attempting the crossing.

Starmer, whose center-left government was elected a year ago, has pledged to “ smash the gangs ” behind organized people-smuggling. His plan rests on closer cooperation with France and with countries further up the migrants’ route from Africa and the Middle East. The U.K. also aims to strike deals with individual nations to take back failed asylum seekers.

British officials have been pushing for French police to intervene more forcefully to stop the boats, and welcomed the sight of officers slashing rubber dinghies with knives in recent days.

U.K. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the French are “bringing in important new tactics to stop boats that are in the water.”

Britain also is pushing France to let officers intervene against boats in deeper waters, a change the government in Paris is considering. Campaigners for migrants’ rights and a police union warn that doing so could endanger both migrants and officers.

Starmer spokesperson Tom Wells said some of the tactics being discussed are “operationally and legally complex, but we’re working closely with the French.”

The two leaders have worked closely together to rally support for Ukraine, though they have taken contrasting approaches to U.S. President Donald Trump, with Macron more willing to challenge the American president than the emollient Starmer.

Britain and France have led efforts to form an international peacekeeping force for Ukraine to reinforce a future ceasefire with European troops and equipment and U.S. security guarantees.

Trump has shown little enthusiasm for the idea, however, and a ceasefire remains elusive. British officials say the “coalition of the willing” idea is alive and well, with Macron and Starmer due to join an international videoconference on Thursday to discuss planning for the force.

Starmer spoke with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday about the “significant progress being made by military planners,” the British leader’s office said.

GENEVA — Iran’s foreign minister plans to meet in Geneva on Friday with leading European counterparts, who hope to open a window for a diplomatic solution to the week-old military conflict that has seen Israeli airstrikes target Iranian nuclear and military sites and Tehran firing back.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who will meet Iran’s Abbas Araghchi together with his French and German counterparts and the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said that “a window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution.”

The talks will be the first face-to-face meeting between Western and Iranian officials since the start of the conflict.

Lammy is traveling to Geneva after meeting in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff.

Trump has been weighing whether to attack Iran by striking its well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain and widely considered to be out of reach of all but America’s “bunker-buster” bombs. He said Wednesday that he’ll decide within two weeks whether the U.S. military will get directly involved in the war given the “substantial chance” for renewed negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program.

“Now is the time to put a stop to the grave scenes in the Middle East and prevent a regional escalation that would benefit no one,” Lammy said.

Israel says it launched its airstrike campaign last week to stop Iran from getting closer to being able to build a nuclear weapon. Iran and the United States had been negotiating over the possibility of a new diplomatic deal over Tehran’s program, though Trump has said Israel’s campaign came after a 60-day window he set for the talks.

Iran’s supreme leader rejectedU.S. calls for surrender Wednesday and warned that any military involvement by the Americans would cause “irreparable damage to them.”

Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, though it was the only non-nuclear-armed state to enrich uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

The three European countries, commonly referred to as the E3, played an important role in the negotiations over the original 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. But they have repeatedly threatened to reinstate sanctions that were lifted under the deal if Iran does not improve its cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Germany’s foreign minister acknowledged that years of efforts to relieve concerns about the possibility of Iran developing a nuclear weapon haven’t succeeded, but said it’s worth talking now.

“It is our commitment once again to undertake a very intensive attempt to dissuade Iran permanently from pursuing such plans,” Johann Wadephul said in a podcast released by broadcaster MDR on Friday. “If there is serious and transparent readiness by Iran to refrain from this, then there is a real chance of preventing a further escalation of this conflict, and for that every conversation makes sense.”

Wadephul said U.S. officials “not only know that we are conducting these talks but are very much in agreement with us doing so — so I think Iran should now know that it should conduct these talks with a new seriousness and reliability.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot spoke by phone with Rubio on Thursday evening.

A French diplomatic official, who was not allowed to speak publicly on the issue, said Barrot detailed the purposes of the Geneva meeting and Rubio “stressed that the U.S. was ready for direct contact with the Iranians at any time.”

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Geir Moulson in Berlin, Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/