UN imposes 'snapback' sanctions on a hungrier, poorer and more anxious Iran

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — 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.

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 with 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.

The three European nations on Sunday said they “continuously made every effort to avoid triggering snapback." But Iran “has not authorized IAEA inspectors to regain access to Iran’s nuclear sites, nor has it produced and transmitted to the IAEA a report accounting for its stockpile of high-enriched uranium.”

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.

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 and said “diplomacy is still an option.”

“For that to happen, Iran must accept direct talks," Rubio said.

However, it remains unclear how Tehran will respond Sunday.

“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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

A woman sits in the al fresco dining area of a cafe at the Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) street, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People walk on a sidewalk at the Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) street, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Two women walk past a huge banner showing the late commander of the Iran's Revolutionary Guard expeditionary Quds Force, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in 2020, and two late Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah, center, and Hashem Safieddine, who were killed in Israeli airstrikes in 2024, at the Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) square, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A domestically-built missile "Khaibar-buster," and banners showing portraits of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, and the late armed forces commanders, who were killed in Israeli strike in June, are displayed in a military exhibition commemorating the anniversary of the start of the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war, and 12-day war with Israel in June, at Baharestan Square, in Tehran, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People walk past a domestically-built missile "Khaibar-buster," and banners showing portraits of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, and the late armed forces commanders, who were killed in Israeli strike in June, displayed in a military exhibition commemorating the anniversary of the start of the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war, and 12-day war with Israel in June, at Baharestan Square in Tehran, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

LONDON (AP) — An emphatic election victory for Britain’s environmentalist Green Party is a nightmare for Prime Minister Keir Starmer that raises questions about how long he will continue as leader.

Less than two years after winning power in a landslide, Starmer’s center-left Labour Party not only lost a longtime stronghold in its northern England heartlands — it came third, finishing behind both the left-leaning Greens and the hard-right party Reform U.K.

Thursday’s election in the Gorton and Denton constituency of Greater Manchester was for just one seat out of 650 in the House of Commons. But it’s a glimpse into the messy new reality of British politics, and its consequences could be far-reaching.

Here are takeaways from the election.

The result is a heavy blow to Starmer, whose leadership has staggered through a series of crises and suffered a near-death experience earlier this month.

Since being elected in July 2024, Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living. His government has been sidetracked by missteps and U-turns over welfare cuts and other unpopular policies.

The next national election does not have to be held until 2029, meaning the main threat to Starmer comes from within his own party. Under British rules, the governing party can change prime minister without having to go to voters.

Three weeks ago it looked like that might happen, when indirect fallout from a trove of Jeffrey Epstein files released in the United States caused discontent to boil over.

Several Labour lawmakers and the party's leader in Scotland called for Starmer to resign, his chief of staff and communications director quit, and his premiership teetered on the brink.

Starmer vowed to stay, and got a reprieve after potential leadership rivals publicly backed him. But his already precarious position is now even shakier, and he faces peril after May 7 local and regional elections, when Labour is expected to do badly.

Jon Trickett, a Labour lawmaker on the left of the party, said Friday that Starmer should “look in the mirror and make a decision about his own personal future.”

Green Party leader Zack Polanski said the result shows that “Labour’s electoral stranglehold is over.”

For a century, U.K. national politics has been dominated by two parties: the Conservatives on the right and Labour on the left. Unlike many European countries, Britain does not have a system of proportional representation, meaning that smaller parties have struggled to break through.

But that is changing. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own distinct parties. And new parties on both left and right are snatching an increasing share of the vote.

Reform U.K., the latest party led by anti-immigration campaigner Nigel Farage, has just eight seats in the House of Commons but has topped opinion polls for months, ahead of both Labour and the Conservatives.

The Greens, under their new leader, the “eco-populist” Polanski, have broadened their message beyond environmental concerns to focus on issues including the cost of living, legalization of drugs and support for the Palestinian cause, positioning themselves as an alternative to Labour for left-liberal voters.

Newly elected lawmaker Hannah Spencer is a 34-year-old plumber who in her victory speech apologized to customers for having to cancel appointments so she could start her new job in Parliament.

She spoke of issues that should be Labour’s terrain: the cost of living, frayed public services and the erosion of opportunities in former industrial areas that traditionally voted Labour.

“For people here in Gorton and Denton who feel left behind and isolated: I see you and I will fight for you,” Spencer said.

The result drives home Labour’s predicament: It faces challenges from both left and right.

Thursday’s election was in a diverse area that has traditional working-class neighborhoods — once strongly Labour, now tilting toward Reform — as well as large numbers of university students and Muslim residents. Many of them feel disillusioned by Labour’s centrist shift under Starmer and the government’s perceived slowness at criticizing Israel’s conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza — fertile ground for the Green Party.

Rob Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said the result was “the nightmare scenario for the incumbent government.”

“They have fallen into the electoral Valley of Death,” Ford wrote on social media. “Rejected in the center. Rejected on the right. And now rejected on the left.”

In the wake of the defeat, many in Labour called for a change of direction, saying efforts to win over “Reform-curious” voters with policies aimed at curbing immigration had alienated many liberal electors.

“If the Labour Party thinks it can win an election by moving on to the territory which has been occupied by Mr. Farage and his party, they’ve made a big mistake,” Trickett told Times Radio. He said the party had made the mistake of assuming "that the progressive voters had nowhere else to go.”

Starmer has been tainted by fallout from scandals about Jeffrey Epstein, a man he never met and in whose crimes he’s not implicated.

The leadership crisis earlier this month was sparked by revelations about the relationship between sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Mandelson, the veteran Labour politician appointed by Starmer in 2024 to be U.K. ambassador to Washington.

Police are investigating emails suggesting Mandelson passed sensitive government information to Epstein a decade and a half ago. Mandelson was arrested and questioned by detectives this week before being released on bail. He does not face any allegations of sexual misconduct.

Starmer fired Mandelson in September 2025 after evidence emerged that the ambassador had maintained a friendship with Epstein after the financier’s 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor. But recent revelations have stirred up Labour lawmakers’ anger at Starmer’s poor judgment in appointing Mandelson to the Washington job in the first place.

On Friday Starmer acknowledged the result was disappointing, but vowed to “keep on fighting.”

“Incumbent governments quite often get results like that mid-term, but I do understand that voters are frustrated," he said. "They’re impatient for change.”

The count begins after voting ends in the Gorton and Denton by-election, Manchester, England, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

The Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer speaks after winning the Gorton and Denton by-election, Manchester, England, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

CORRECTS DATE - Greens Party candidate Hannah Spencer, left, stands with party leader Zack Polanski after winning the Gorton and Denton by-election, Manchester, England, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets local party members, in London, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)

Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer, right, celebrates with party leader Zack Polanski at a volunteer thank you event after winning the Gorton and Denton by-election, Manchester, England, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)