Iranian diplomats have met their counterparts from the UK, Germany, and France for nuclear talks, for the first time since Israel launched attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June.

The strikes triggered a 12-day war, which also saw the US bomb a number of Iran’s nuclear sites, bringing US-Iran nuclear talks to an abrupt end.

The three European powers that attended the talks, known as the E3, have threatened to reimpose sanctions on Iran if no progress is made towards negotiating a new nuclear deal by the end of August.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said they held a “serious, frank, and detailed” discussion, and agreed to continue consultations.

Gharibabadi said earlier this week that triggering sanctions would be “completely illegal”.

Sanctions on Iran’s nuclear programme were previously lifted as a result of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which was agreed with the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany.

Its followed years of tensions over Iran’s alleged efforts to develop a nuclear weapon – something Tehran has always denied.

Under the deal’s terms, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities and allow in international inspectors.

The US withdrew from the deal in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term, with the leader saying it did too little to stop Iran from creating a pathway to a nuclear bomb. With its withdrawal, all US sanctions were re-imposed on Iran.

Iran retaliated by increasingly breaching the restrictions.

The UK, Germany and France have threatened to reimpose severe sanctions on Iran unless it agrees to limit its nuclear programme, with a deadline set for October.

As the talks started on Friday, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran had indicated it would be ready to restart conversations at a technical level regarding its nuclear programme.

Rafael Grossi also noted that Iran needed to be transparent about its facilities and activities.

“We need to listen to Iran in terms of what they consider should be the precautions to be taken,” he added.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told Iranian state media that the E3 countries should use the meeting to “compensate for their previous unconstructive policies”.

He also accused the three countries of justifying “law-breaking and aggression” by backing the US-Israeli attacks in June, adding that Iran would formally protest about their stance during the current talks.

In June Iran’s parliament suspended cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog after tensions with Israel and the US came to a head.

It came after Israel launched strikes in Iran on 13 June, which Tehran responded to with missile and drone attacks.

The US, one of Israel’s strongest allies, then gave Iran a two-week window to resume diplomatic relations.

During that time, on 20 June, diplomats from Germany, France and the UK met Iran for talks in Geneva seeking de-escalation.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi then said his country was “prepared” to meet E3 representatives again.

But after the Geneva talks, Washington launched its own attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. President Trump said the operation, known as “Operation Midnight Hammer”, had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

A US intelligence assessment released in June suggested the US’s strikes did not destroy the country’s nuclear programme, however, and probably only set it back by months.