Iran seeks guarantees US won’t leave nuclear pact again

Iranian, American officials hold second round of talks in Rome

Donald Trump and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran is planning to set out a series of proposals for a new nuclear pact, including guarantees from the Trump administration that the US won’t leave a future accord, people familiar with the matter said, as Iranian and American officials started a second round of talks in Rome.

Last weekend, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held negotiations on a potential deal with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, which were hosted by Oman in the highest-level talks between the US and Iran in years.

Those talks began with indirect discussions mediated by Omani officials in which the two sides were in separate rooms. But they culminated in a 45-minute direct meeting between Araghchi and Witkoff, a person familiar with the talks said.

In addition to the guarantees, the Iranians expect to discuss ways that their current stockpile of enriched uranium could be managed under a deal. They also plan to discuss a process for lifting economic sanctions and their hope to organise a high-level visit in Washington, Iranian and Arab officials say.

A spokesman for Witkoff declined to comment on the details in the talks, including any demands the Iranians might make on assurances.

“The President has been clear: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon or enrichment program,” the spokesman said. “As we continue to talk, we expect to refine a framework and timetable for working towards a deal that achieves the President’s objectives peacefully.”

This handout picture provided by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (L) meeting with Italian Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani in Rome.

Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes, but the US has long accused Tehran of preparing the option to develop a nuclear weapon and has insisted the program be dismantled or be subject to strict limits.

“Team Iran at Rome with full powers for a deal,” Ali Shamkhani, a top aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrote on X as Saturday’s talks began. He said an agreement needs to include “guarantees, balance, no threats, speed, lifting sanctions … containing troublemakers (like Israel), and promoting investment.”

He also said Iran won’t accept the dismantlement of its nuclear program, as was agreed to by Libya in 2003, an approach Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has championed. Nor would Iran accept an approach adopted by the United Arab Emirates in which the country operates nuclear reactors but forgoes enriching uranium and depends on imported fuel, he said.

Iran’s proposal on guarantees reflects its experience with the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration where Iran curbed its nuclear enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief.

Trump withdrew the US from that deal in 2018, calling it “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”

When the Obama administration and other world powers negotiated the 2015 accord with Iran, the deal was in the form of a “plan” instead of a treaty, which the White House calculated might not receive the two-thirds Senate vote that would be needed to ratify it.

A push for guarantees became the major Iranian ask during talks with the Biden administration on reviving the 2015 deal, which eventually failed. The US was willing to offer words pledging not to leave the deal but told the Iranians repeatedly that no administration can bind the decisions of a future president and Congress.

“This is the issue that sunk our ability to go back into the JCPOA,” said Richard Nephew, a former US negotiator with Iran during the Biden administration, referring to the 2015 accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. “Even treaties have withdrawal provisions for national security reasons.”

Officials also argue that Washington can’t offer a guarantee because it needs the flexibility to withdraw from an accord if Iran takes hostile action against American interests and allies or violates the deal.

The best hope Iran has for preserving long-term US support for an accord, they say, is for Tehran to comply with a deal that strictly limits its nuclear program while avoiding aggressive policies in the region.

In the Saturday talks at the Omani Embassy in Italy, Araghchi is expected to propose a framework Tehran hopes would ensure the US doesn’t withdraw from a future nuclear pact, said European and Iranian officials and another person familiar with the Iranian position.

As part of those guarantees, Iran wants the US to cover Tehran’s losses if Washington was to pull out of a deal, according to these people. The idea of a financial penalty if the US withdrew from a deal was floated by the Iranians to the Biden administration officials, but that idea went nowhere.

“Iran’s worry is not just to sign a deal but one with conditions that would prevent it from being unilaterally unwound,” said Mohamed Amersi, a Middle East-focused member of the advisory board at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank.

Iran stepped up its nuclear program after Trump quit the nuclear pact and is now producing 60 per cent high-enriched uranium, the only country without nuclear weapons to do so. That material can be swiftly converted into the 90 per cent-grade material needed for a bomb.

To stockpile the surplus fuel that would arise from a reduction of its nuclear enrichment, Tehran is open to having its stored stockpiles managed by Russia — with whom Trump is pursuing a rapprochement, the people said. The stockpiles are currently supervised by the United Nations atomic agency, which contains them in caskets under seal.

In comments Monday, Witkoff suggested the Trump administration would allow Iran to permanently keep its enrichment at levels that are no higher than 3.67 per cent if it was subject to stringent verification and other steps were taken to prevent Iran from being able to make a nuclear weapon.

But on Tuesday, Witkoff issued a statement saying that Iran has to agree to “stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.”

While Trump has said that he wants to resolve the Iran nuclear issues through diplomacy, he has said he is willing to use military force to stop Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon. On Friday, he told media that lives in Iran “will be in great danger” if it obtains a nuclear weapon.

Wall Street Journal