"There were no European negotiators. France stated its intention to participate but was not included in the talks." [France]
France's explicit exclusion despite intent to participate directly evidences the structural shift away from the multilateral E3+3 format that defined the JCPOA toward a US-bilateral architecture.
Reasoning from this article
The JCPOA was negotiated by the P5+1 (US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China plus EU). The 2025-2026 talks deliberately excluded European parties, with Oman serving as sole mediator. This pattern—where the dominant power negotiates directly with the proliferant state, sidelining multilateral institutions—generalizes beyond Iran to any future nuclear negotiation where the US prefers transactional bilateral deals over treaty-based multilateral frameworks. The MOU's intentionally vague language and deferred enforcement mechanisms further reflect this structural preference for flexibility over binding multilateral commitments.