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)

PARIS (AP) — When 15-year-old Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux realized an Associated Press photo of him at the Louvre on the day of the crown jewels heist had drawn millions of views, his first instinct was not to rush online and unmask himself.

Quite the opposite. A fan of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot who lives with his parents and grandfather in Rambouillet, 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Paris, Pedro decided to play along with the world’s suspense.

As theories swirled about the sharply dressed stranger in the “Fedora Man” shot — detective, insider, AI fake — he decided to stay silent and watch.

“I didn’t want to say immediately it was me,” he said. “With this photo there is a mystery, so you have to make it last.”

For his only in-person interview since that snap turned him into an international curiosity, he appeared for the AP cameras at his home much as he did that Sunday: in a fedora hat, Yves Saint Laurent waistcoat borrowed from his father, jacket chosen by his mother, neat tie, Tommy Hilfiger trousers and a restored, war-battered Russian watch.

The fedora, angled just so, is his homage to French Resistance hero Jean Moulin.

In person, he is a bright, amused teenager who wandered, by accident, into a global story.

The image that made him famous was meant to document a crime scene. Three police officers lean on a silver car blocking a Louvre entrance, hours after thieves carried out a daylight raid on French crown jewels. To the right, a lone figure in a three-piece ensemble strides past — a flash of film noir in a modern-day manhunt.

The internet did the rest. “Fedora Man,” as users dubbed him, was cast as an old-school detective, an inside man, a Netflix pitch — or not human at all. Many were convinced he was AI-generated.

Pedro understood why. “In the photo, I’m dressed more in the 1940s, and we are in 2025,” he said. “There is a contrast.”in

Even some relatives and friends hesitated until they spotted his mother in the background. Only then were they sure: The internet’s favorite fake detective was a real boy.

The real story was simple. Pedro, his mother and grandfather had come to visit the Louvre.

“We wanted to go to the Louvre, but it was closed,” he said. “We didn’t know there was a heist.”

They asked officers why the gates were shut. Seconds later, AP photographer Thibault Camus, documenting the security cordon, caught Pedro midstride.

“When the picture was taken, I didn’t know,” Pedro said. “I was just passing through.”

Four days later, an acquaintance messaged: Is that you?

“She told me there were 5 million views,” he said. “I was a bit surprised.” Then his mother called to say he was in The New York Times. “It’s not every day,” he said. Cousins in Colombia, friends in Austria, family friends and classmates followed with screenshots and calls.

“People said, ‘You’ve become a star,’” he said. “I was astonished that just with one photo you can become viral in a few days.”

The look that jolted tens of millions is not a costume whipped up for a museum trip. Pedro began dressing this way less than a year ago, inspired by 20th-century history and black-and-white images of suited statesmen and fictional detectives.

“I like to be chic,” he said. “I go to school like this.”

In a sea of hoodies and sneakers, he shows up in a riff on a three-piece suit. And the hat? No, that's its own ritual. The fedora is reserved for weekends, holidays and museum visits.

At his no-uniform school, his style has already started to spread. “One of my friends came this week with a tie,” he said.

He understands why people projected a whole sleuth character onto him: improbable heist, improbable detective. He loves Poirot — “very elegant” — and likes the idea that an unusual crime calls for someone who looks unusual. “When something unusual happens, you don’t imagine a normal detective,” he said. “You imagine someone different.”

That instinct fits the world he comes from. His mother, Félicité Garzon Delvaux, grew up in an 18th-century museum-palace, daughter of a curator and an artist — and regularly takes her son to exhibits.

“Art and museums are living spaces,” she said. “Life without art is not life.”

For Pedro, art and imagery were part of everyday life. So when millions projected stories onto a single frame of him in a fedora beside armed police at the Louvre, he recognized the power of an image and let the myth breathe before stepping forward.

He stayed silent for several days, then switched his Instagram from private to public.

“People had to try to find who I am,” he said. “Then journalists came, and I told them my age. They were extremely surprised.”

He is relaxed about whatever comes next. “I’m waiting for people to contact me for films,” he said, grinning. “That would be very funny.”

In a story of theft and security lapses, “Fedora Man” is a gentler counterpoint — a teenager who believes art, style and a good mystery belong to ordinary life. One photo turned him into a symbol. Meeting him confirms he is, reassuringly, real.

“I’m a star,” he says — less brag than experiment, as if he’s trying on the words the way he tries on a hat. “I’ll keep dressing like this. It’s my style.”

FILE - Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux, right, walks past as police officers block an entrance to the Louvre after thieves carried out a daylight raid on French crown jewels, in Paris, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)