Iran may offer an interim nuclear deal in talks with the US before continuing dialogue on a full agreement.
This is reported by Axios, citing sources.
The US President Donald Trump has set a two-month deadline for talks with Tehran, but he has also ordered a buildup of the US military forces in the Middle East as a backup option if diplomacy fails, in which case Washington could strike Iranʼs nuclear facilities or support an Israeli strike.
According to Axios, the Iranians believe it is unrealistic to reach a complex nuclear deal with the United States in two months, so they want more time to avoid escalation.
Under the interim agreement, Tehran could suspend some uranium enrichment activities, reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium to 60%, and grant UN inspectors greater access to its nuclear facilities.
These steps would only slightly increase the time it takes for Iran to build a nuclear bomb, but could build credibility for further talks, experts say. The interim agreement could also be an extension of the Snapback mechanism that was part of the 2015 nuclear deal, which expires in October.
The interim agreement would likely require Trump to suspend his “maximum pressure” campaign on the Iranian economy. It is not yet clear whether the US president would be willing to do so.
Trumpʼs position on Iran
Last September, during the election campaign, Trump said he was open to a new nuclear deal with Iran. At the time, Politico noted that his statements were an attempt to ease tensions with the Iranian government — the Republican had been told a week earlier that Iran was plotting to assassinate Trump.
Trump did not go into details about future cooperation with Iran, but noted that negotiations are needed in any case — because of the threat posed by Iran with its desire to have nuclear weapons.
In early February, the American president signed a document that restores “maximum pressure” on Iran to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero and prevent the country from obtaining nuclear weapons.
And on February 6, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions against an international network that funnels revenues from the sale of Iranian oil to the Iranian army, circumventing existing restrictions.
In March, Bloomberg wrote that Putin had agreed to help Trump in nuclear negotiations with Iran.
What preceded
The Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2015 by the US, UK, Russia, France, China, Germany and the EU. They agreed that the Iranian authorities would give up their nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump withdrew the country from the Iran nuclear deal and imposed new sanctions against the Iranian regime.
Tehran resumed uranium production after Trump pulled out of the deal. Under Joe Biden’s presidency, Iran’s nuclear program has “advanced significantly,” Axios noted.
The Biden administration has been conducting indirect talks with Iran to revive the Iran nuclear deal. Those efforts collapsed in late 2022 when the United States accused Iran of making “unfounded” demands related to an International Atomic Energy Agency investigation into unexplained traces of uranium found at undisclosed Iranian sites. In the months that followed, the Trump administration maintained that the Iran nuclear deal was “off the table”.
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