US and Iran divided by key question in nuclear talks

Washington opposes Tehran’s insistence on retaining the ability to enrich uranium, as two sides begin third round of talks.

The flags of the US and Iran hang on the road leading to the Muscat International Book fair Picture: AFP

US and Iranian negotiators resumed nuclear talks Saturday, with the two sides at odds over the fundamental question of whether Tehran can continue to enrich uranium.

The capability would supply what Iran says are civilian nuclear purposes but would leave the country in control of a key precursor to building a nuclear weapon.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that Iran could have a civilian nuclear program as long as it uses imported nuclear fuel, an arrangement that is intended to block Tehran’s pathway to a bomb.

Iran, which insists its nuclear program is peaceful, has long balked at depending on external sources and has insisted that it has the right to enrich its own nuclear material.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, visits the Muscat International Book Fair in Oman. Picture: AP

The issue has emerged as a major sticking point in talks that also include other thorny nuclear issues as well as the Trump’s administration’s demands that any accord cover Iran’s missile program.

The Obama administration agreed to let Iran continue enriching its own fuel, which paved the way to a nuclear deal in 2015 aimed at restraining weapons development. That accord initially set the enrichment cap at the 3.67 per cent common for civilian purposes but allowed Iran to eventually achieve enrichment levels that went well beyond that.

After President Trump pulled out of the Obama-era nuclear deal during his first term, Iran stepped up its nuclear program 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.

Iran is producing the enriched uranium needed for a single nuclear weapon each month and would need only a week or two to turn it into weapons-grade material, US officials say. It would take months more to make an actual nuclear device, and US intelligence believes Iran’s supreme leader hasn’t given the go-ahead to do so.

Trump has given a deadline of two months to conclude a pact and has repeatedly threatened to turn to military force if Iran balks at a deal.

“I think we’ll have a deal,” he told reporters Friday. “I’d much rather have a deal than the alternative.”

Iran is seeking relief from crippling sanctions as part of any agreement, hoping to boost its struggling economy.

Concerned a deal might not be reached within 60 days, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi offered to discuss an interim agreement with the US, Arab and Iranian officials said.

Steve Witkoff, a real-estate magnate and the Trump administration’s special envoy, flew to Oman for the talks from Moscow, where he held his fourth meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to end the conflict in Ukraine.

The Iran talks will feature the first meeting during the Trump administration of technical teams on both sides, who will discuss the highly detailed questions of how to constrain Iran’s nuclear work and verify compliance in return for sanctions relief.

Tehran is planning to detail the status of its nuclear facilities and discuss how a new nuclear pact could be verified and where its stockpiles could be stored, Arab and Iranian officials said. Iran has been considering options to store nuclear material under Russian supervision.

The US technical team is led by Michael Anton, the head of the State Department’s office of policy planning and a conservative academic who served as a spokesman for the National Security Council during Trump’s first administration. He will face veteran Iranian nuclear negotiators Majid Takht-Ravanchi and Kazem Gharibabadi.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog, is also planning on sending a team to Iran in the coming days.

The agency is seeking better cooperation from Tehran to answer questions about its nuclear work and its activities at sites related to the nuclear program. That includes a push for Tehran to explain the presence of tunnels around the Natanz nuclear facility, which houses thousands of centrifuges used to enrich uranium. On Thursday, the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security released satellite images of the site showing a new tunnel as well as a new security perimeter.

Britain, France and Germany have threatened to reimpose sanctions lifted under the 2015 deal if Tehran fails to cooperate with the IAEA by October. Iran has warned it could kick out inspectors and leave the international treaty which obliges it not to seek nuclear weapons if they do so.

Wall Street Journal