As the E3 prepares to snapback all sanctions on Iran at the UN, it is important to understand what the E3's intentions are and what they are not.

Netanyahu quoted the German Chancellor in his UN address (to a largely empty hall) that "Israel is doing the dirty work for all of us [by bombing Iran]."

This was not just the absence of condemning Israel's act of aggression; this was a full-throated European endorsement of Israel starting a war.

Given this significant statement, it is no longer justified to simply assume that the E3's actions with the snapback are designed to solve the nuclear issue peacefully.

While that assumption had grounds earlier on, it no longer does.

I have spoken to several European diplomats at the UN this week, and several expressed both discomfort and outright opposition to the E3 move, understanding both that its outcome and intent are problematic.

But the E3 is not taking its cues from the EU, but from the White House.

And its calculations have more to do with Ukraine and the transatlantic relationship than the nuclear file.