Last week, Iran told the United States at talks that it was willing to accept some restrictions on uranium enrichment but needed clear guarantees that President Donald Trump would not abandon the nuclear deal again. The countries could reach an agreement if the United States “demonstrates seriousness and does not make unrealistic demands”.
Reuters reports this, citing a statement by a senior Iranian official on Friday, April 18.
The first round of indirect talks on the Iran-US nuclear deal was held in Oman, with both sides evaluating it positively. The next round of talks is expected to take place in Rome on Saturday, April 19.
An Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Tehranʼs red lines, "defined by the authorized representatives of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei", cannot be violated during the talks.
According to him, these red lines mean that Iran will never agree to dismantle its uranium enrichment centrifuges, completely stop enrichment, or reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium below the level agreed to in the 2015 deal, from which Trump later withdrew.
It will also not negotiate over its missile program, which Tehran considers outside the scope of any nuclear deal.
“During the indirect talks in Oman, Iran understood that Washington does not want Iran to stop all nuclear activities, and this could be a common ground for Iran and the United States to start honest negotiations,” the source told Reuters.
According to the source, Tehran has said it is ready to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which it considers "the only acceptable body in this process," to provide guarantees that its nuclear program is peaceful.
The source added that Iranʼs Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told the Americans that in exchange for such cooperation, Washington should immediately lift sanctions on Iranʼs oil and financial sectors.
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 Iranʼs pursuit of 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 diverts revenues from the sale of Iranian oil to the needs of the Iranian army, bypassing 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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