Blasting crackdown but eyeing deal, West in quandary over Iran

Waging brutal repression at home and allegedly helping Russia in its war against Ukraine, Iran is becoming an unsolvable challenge for Western powers eager to avoid a new nuclear power in the Middle East. 

"We're in a delicate situation and an obvious impasse," a French diplomat admitted before Wednesday's UN Security Council meeting on suspected Iranian drone use by Russian forces.

Despite Tehran's new support for an increasingly isolated Moscow, the United States and the European Union still hope to revive the 2015 deal aimed at curtailing Iran's nuclear programme -- even though the prospect is dimming.

"Iran's repression at home and aggression in Ukraine have increased the political cost for and decreased the appetite of the West to grant Tehran sanctions relief," said analyst Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group.

"But the West has no good options, as the only thing worse than a repressive regime that kills its own people is a nuclear armed one that does so."

Iran has denied supplying Russia with cheap kamikaze drones that have targeted Ukraine for weeks, though European and American officials say they have clear evidence, and on Thursday the European Union slapped new sanctions on the Islamic republic.