ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses at the reasons and explores the multilateral context that replaced the E3 negotiations and the European Union's (EU) ability to reach effective results. In 2005, the E3 were at a crossroads on how to continue the negotiations. They could strike a deal with the Iranians if there was an agreement on objective guarantees for a peaceful program. The alternative was to succumb to American pressure and approve reporting Iran to the Security Council. In the process the EU's role was transformed from autonomous negotiator to a practical facilitator as the final deal was arrived at in bilateral negotiations between the US and Iran. The chapter focuses on effective multilateralism, on EU foreign policy actorness and on whether it could have been otherwise. Effective multilateralism is about results. In the Iran case, multilateralism was effective as a framework while results were achieved in bilateral negotiations between the US and Iran.
