France, Britain and Germany on Thursday triggered a mechanism to reimpose United Nations sanctions on Iran for failing to comply with commitments over its nuclear programme it agreed to a decade ago.

Iran warned that it would "respond appropriately" to the move, which risks ending the most sustained diplomatic push for a peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.

The United States welcomed the step, while emphasising it was ready for "direct engagement" with the Islamic republic with which Washington has had no diplomatic relations since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The foreign ministers of France, Britain and Germany said they "hereby invoke the process known as the 'snapback' mechanism," which initiates a 30-day process for reimposing sanctions suspended a decade a

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