Iran said on Saturday that it was no longer bound by restrictions on its nuclear programme as a landmark 10-year deal between it and world powers expired, though Tehran reiterated its “commitment to diplomacy.”

The 2015 deal — signed in Vienna by Iran, China, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — saw the lifting of international sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear programme.

But the pact had already been in tatters after Washington unilaterally withdrew during President Donald Trump’s first term, with Iran later pulling back from its commitments.

The reimposition last month of UN sanctions at the urging of three of the deal’s European signatories rendered the accord effectively moot.

From now on, “all of the provisions (of the deal), including the restrictions on the Iranian nuclear programme and the related mechanisms are considered terminated,” Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement on the day of the pact’s expiration.

“Iran firmly expresses its commitment to diplomacy,” it added.

Western powers have long accused Iran of secretly seeking nuclear weapons — something it has repeatedly denied, insisting its nuclear programme is solely for civilian purposes such as energy production.

The deal’s “termination day” was set for October 18, 2025, exactly 10 years after it was enshrined in the UN’s Security Council resolution 2231.

The accord capped Iran’s uranium enrichment at 3.67 percent in exchange for sanctions relief and provided for strict supervision of its nuclear activities by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

But Washington left the deal in 2018 and reinstated sanctions, after which Tehran began stepping up its nuclear program.

According to the IAEA, Iran is the only country without a nuclear weapons programme to enrich uranium to 60%. That is close to the threshold of 90% required for a bomb, and well above the level needed for civilian nuclear use.

‘Irresponsible actions’

In July, Iran suspended cooperation with the IAEA following the war with Israel, with Tehran pointing to the agency’s failure to condemn Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities.

The unprecedented bombing campaign by Israel and the retaliation by Iran during the 12-day war derailed ongoing nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

At the initiative of France, Britain and Germany, widespread UN sanctions against Iran returned into force in late September for the first time in a decade.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a letter addressed to the United Nations on Saturday that the expiration of the 2015 deal renders the sanctions “null and void.”

Britain, France and Germany accuse Iran of not cooperating with the IAEA and would like it to return to negotiations with the United States.

“Iran’s efforts to revive the exchanges (with the IAEA) that led to the agreement in Cairo were also sabotaged by the irresponsible actions of the three European countries,” the Iranian foreign ministry said in Saturday’s statement, referring to a recent framework to resume cooperation.

The United Nations’ humanitarian chief on Saturday assessed the enormous challenge of restoring essential services across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, as Israel received the remains of another hostage from the October 7 attack, marking the second week of the ceasefire.

In a small convoy of white UN vehicles, relief coordinator Tom Fletcher and his team navigated through the wreckage of demolished buildings to inspect a wastewater treatment facility in Sheikh Radwan, north of Gaza City.

“I drove through here seven or eight months ago when most of these buildings were still standing. To see this level of destruction vast stretches of the city turned into wasteland it’s absolutely heartbreaking,” Fletcher told AFP.

Once densely populated with over two million Palestinians, Gaza’s cities now lie in ruins after two years of relentless bombardment and fierce clashes between Hamas and the Israeli army.

A little over a week after U.S. President Donald Trump helped broker the truce, the main border crossing with Egypt remains closed, though hundreds of aid trucks continue to enter daily through Israeli checkpoints to distribute relief supplies.

Hamas has returned the last 20 living hostages in its custody and has begun transferring the remains of 28 others who died during captivity.

On Friday night, it handed over the body of Eliyahu Margalit, 75, who was killed in the October 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war.

Digging latrines

Surveying the damaged pumping equipment and a grim lake of sewage at the Sheikh Radwan wastewater plant, Fletcher said the task ahead for the UN and aid agencies was a “massive, massive job”.

The British diplomat said he had met residents returning to destroyed homes trying to dig latrines in the ruins.

“They’re telling me most of all they want dignity,” he said. “We’ve got to get the power back on so we can start to get the sanitation system back in place.

“We have a massive 60 day plan now to surge in food, get a million meals out there a day, start to rebuild the health sector, bring in tents for the winter, get hundreds of thousands of kids back into school.”

According to figures supplied to mediators by the Israeli military’s civil affairs agency and released by the UN humanitarian office, on Thursday some 950 trucks carrying aid and commercial supplies crossed into Gaza from Israel.

Relief agencies have called for the Rafah border crossing from Egypt to be reopened to speed the flow of food, fuel and medicines, and Turkey has a team of rescue specialists waiting at the border to help find bodies in the rubble.
– Hostage remains –
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the ceasefire but is under pressure at home to restrict access to Gaza until the remaining bodies of the hostages taken during Hamas’s brutal attacks have been returned.

On Saturday, his office confirmed that the latest body, returned by Hamas via the Red Cross on Friday night, had been identified as Margalit, the elderly farmer who was known to his friends at the Nir Oz kibbutz as “Churchill”.

“He was a cowboy at heart, and for many years managed the cattle branch and the horse stables of Nir Oz,” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a support group founded by relatives of the hostages.

“He was connected to the ‘Riders of the South’ group whose members shared a love of horseback riding for over 50 years. On October 7, he went out to feed his beloved horses and was kidnapped from the stable.”

Margalit had been married with three children and three grandchildren. His daughter Nili Margalit, also taken hostage, was freed during the war’s first brief truce in November 2023.

In a statement confirming he had been identified and his remains returned to his family, Netanyahu’s office said “we will not compromise … and will spare no effort until we return all of the fallen abductees, down to the last one”.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said on Friday that the group “continues to uphold its commitment to the ceasefire agreement… and it will continue working to complete the full prisoner exchange process”.

Under the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, negotiated by Trump and regional mediators, the Palestinian militant group has returned all 20 surviving hostages and the remains of 10 out of 28 deceased ones.