Doha (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States was nearing a nuclear agreement with Iran, noting that Tehran had “sort of” accepted the terms. “We’re in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace,” Trump said on a tour of the Gulf.
The US has demanded that Iran halt its uranium enrichment to stop the nation from potentially developing nuclear weapons, while Iran maintains that its nuclear efforts are solely for peaceful purposes.
During his Thursday speech in Qatar, the second destination of his multi-day Gulf tour, Trump indicated that an agreement regarding Iran’s nuclear program was near and implied that a military strike on Tehran’s facilities might be circumvented.
Is a new US-Iran nuclear deal close?
“We’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this… there (are) two steps to doing this, there is a very, very nice step and there is the violent step, but I don’t want to do it the second way,” he said.
“You probably read today the story about Iran. It’s sort of agreed to the terms.”
The president did not clarify which comments he meant, but Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stated in a US media interview that Tehran was open to accepting significant limitations on its nuclear program. Shamkhani informed that Iran is willing to relinquish its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium in exchange for the US lifting sanctions.
Can Iran agree without losing enrichment rights?
U.S. officials have openly declared that Iran must stop enriching uranium, a position that Iranian officials labeled a “red line,” maintaining that they will not relinquish what they consider their right to enrich uranium on their territory.
Nevertheless, they have expressed a readiness to lower the level of enrichment. Iranian officials have indicated their willingness to lower the quantity of highly enriched uranium stored—uranium that exceeds the levels usually required for civilian uses, like nuclear energy production.
However, they have stated that they will not accept stockpiles lower than those agreed upon in a 2015 deal with world powers, which Trump abandoned. The Iranian source indicated that while Iran is willing to provide what it views as concessions,
“the issue is that America is not willing to lift major sanctions in exchange.”
