Trump says US, Iran close to nuclear deal

Iran had said after last weekend’s talks there were still significant differences between the two sides.

President Donald Trump smiles backdropped by an MQ-9 Reaper drone before addressing military personnel at the Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar. Picture: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

American negotiators for the first time pitched a written nuclear proposal to their Iranian counterparts, according to people briefed on the matter, days before President Trump said the US was close to an agreement on the matter on Thursday.

The US issued its proposal last weekend during the fourth round of nuclear negotiations between the US and Iran since April 12. After those talks, the US said it was encouraged by Iran’s openness to Washington’s approach. The Iranians said the talks were “difficult but useful” in clarifying the differences.

The Iranians said they would take the US proposal back to Tehran for discussion, one of the people said. The US proposal to Iran was reported by Axios earlier Thursday.

The Iranian and US negotiating teams didn’t respond to requests for comment on the proposal.

“I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this,” Trump said at a business event in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday, alluding to military strikes on Iran. “There’s two steps. There’s a very, very nice step, and there’s a violent step, violence like people haven’t seen before.”

Oil prices fell more than 3 per cent as investors anticipated that any deal would entail easing sanctions on Iranian crude exports.

At stake in the talks is a two-decade-long dispute over Iran’s nuclear work. The US wants Iran to roll back its program, which American officials think is within a few months of being able to produce a nuclear weapon. Iran says it is open to scaling back the program if the US lifts sanctions over its nuclear work, providing relief for its beleaguered economy.

In his Doha remarks, Trump cited a story published Thursday setting out Iran’s position on the talks. He later reposted on Truth Social what appeared to be the story he was referring to, an NBC interview with Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In the interview, Shamkhani said that Tehran was ready to make concessions to secure a nuclear deal with Washington.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with with Yousif Al Obaidli, director of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, during a tour in Abu Dhabi on Thursday. Picture: AP/ Alex Brandon

However, he didn’t signal any change in Iran’s most important red line—an insistence that Tehran is able to continue enriching uranium. Trump and other top officials have said Iran shouldn’t have an enrichment program under a new nuclear deal.

Shamkhani said Iran would commit to never making nuclear weapons, scrap its stockpile of highly enriched, near weapons-grade uranium and agree to enrich uranium only at low levels of purity needed for a civilian peaceful program.

All those steps were taken by Iran as part of the 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump took the US out of in 2018.

“It’s still possible. If the Americans act as they say, for sure we can have better relations,” Shamkhani told the broadcaster, adding, “it can lead to a better situation in the near future.”

In recent days, Iran has floated other possible ideas as the basis of a deal. Iranian officials have said they were open to a nuclear consortium with neighboring countries, where they would deliver Iran’s production of enriched uranium to Saudi Arabia and others, in return for investment in the joint venture. The consortium would include some sharing of technology.

However, the proposal would breach the US’s position on Iran’s continued enrichment. It would also leave Iran’s neighbors dependent on Iranian nuclear material and it is unclear if Iran would want to keep some of its fissile material in Iran under any such arrangement.

Vali Nasr, a Middle-East-focused professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., said: “Both sides are speaking to their domestic constituencies, suggesting progress while being keen to show they are not easily giving away concessions.”

The last round of negotiations was focused on presenting the US perspective on an agreement, said people briefed on the talks. Iran didn’t reject the US ideas presented. Any final decision on an agreement would need to be taken by Iran’s top leadership, including the supreme leader.

There are growing signs the two sides are aiming initially to wrap up some form of framework for a deal, rather than a detailed new accord similar to the 2015 nuclear agreement.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd during his meeting with a large group of laborers in Tehran last week 10. Picture: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP

Iranian officials have talked about agreeing general principles for a deal. One of the officials briefed on the US proposal said that it appears not to be a detailed comprehensive agreement. In Doha on Thursday, Trump appeared to echo that.

“It’s not like I have to give you 30 pages’ worth of details,” he said. “It’s only one sentence: They can’t have a nuclear weapon.”

If the US and Iran were to reach a broad understanding on a deal, it is unclear if there would then need to be follow-on negotiations over the precise details. The 2015 deal set very specific limits on Iran’s nuclear work for a decade, including the amount of enriched uranium it could have, how pure that material could be, how many centrifuges for enriching uranium Iran could install and how many it could produce as backups.

Those details took almost two years of negotiations to hammer out for the 2015 deal.

The Trump administration has sent mixed signals about what it hopes for from the talks. Trump last week said he hadn’t decided whether Iran should be able to continue enriching uranium under a deal. But earlier this week, he said a deal should depend on Iran ending its sponsorship of terrorist activities, halting support for pro-Iranian militia and verifiably ceasing its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Pressure has built among congressional Republicans for a deal under which Iran would completely stop its uranium enrichment. A letter to that effect was signed by all but one Republican senators this week.

“There is zero chance of Iran agreeing to forgo all enrichment at this stage. That’s always been a red line for Iran,” said Daniel Shapiro, a former US ambassador to Israel who worked for the Biden administration in talks with Iran. “So if the US and Iran are close to a deal, it will either allow Iran to enrich to a low level…or it will be an interim less-for-less agreement to kick the can down the road and buy some time, but resolve nothing.”

The Trump administration has made clear it is prepared to see Iran’s civilian nuclear program continue under an agreement. Top US officials have said Iran could obtain enriched uranium for that program from abroad.

Wall Street Journal