Iran has proposed the establishment of a joint venture nuclear enrichment in which regional Arab countries and American investments are involved as an alternative to Washington’s requirement that it dismantles his nuclear program, according to four Iranian officials who are familiar with the plan.
The Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, presented the idea to an American special envoy, Steve Witkoff, when the two men held direct and indirect conversations in Oman on Sunday, according to the four Iranian officials. They asked not to be mentioned because they discussed sensitive issues.
On Tuesday, various Iranian media sales points on the front page accounts of the “New Plan of Iran about the negotiating table” published. One of those points of sale was the Farhikhtegan newspaper, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards Corps. The question raised whether the proposal was ‘a service or betrayal’.
Mr. Witkoff’s office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Security Council, did not respond to requests for comments about the negotiations.
It was not immediately clear how feasible a regional nuclear company could be if it concerned Iran and two of its greatest rivals, Saudi Aarabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations and private American companies for 45 years can also be reluctant to invest in the nuclear reactors of Iran.
President Trump, on A visit to Saudi -Arabia on TuesdayIran criticized for proxy -militant groups in the middle, but he said that a diplomatic resolution with Iran would make the region safer.
“I want to close a deal with Iran,” said Mr. Trump. “If I can close a deal with Iran, I will be very happy if we make your region and the world a safer place. “
But Iranian leaders, he warned, must make a decision soon, otherwise they will experience even more economic pressure of sanctions. “Time is now for them to choose,” he said. “At the moment we don’t have much time to wait.”
Iran’s proposal means the establishment of a nuclear consortium with three countries in which Iran would enrich Uranium to a low class According to the four Iranian officials and news items.
A deal that would enable Iran to enrich uranium to 3.67 percent would be similar to the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and World Forces. But a big difference would be the presence in the field of representatives from other countries to offer even the United States-to offer an extra layer of supervision and involvement.
The four Iranian officials said that in contrast to the Nuclear Deal 2015, which had an expiration date of 15 years, the joint venture plan would be permanent. That would allow Mr. Trump, who took the United States out of that deal, that he had obtained considerably more from Iran than President Barack Obama.
Ali Vaez, the Iran director of the International Crisis Group, said that although the ideas of the venture was new and not tested, the negotiators had to try a different approach. “They are basically at a point where they have to go beyond the maximum zero sum -requirements to save both parties,” he said.
Before Sunday’s conversations in Oman, it turned out that Iran and the United States were an impasse, Increase the risk of a military confrontation. Iranian and American officials both said that they want to turn the war and resolve the impasse diplomatic.
After weeks of conflicting comments about what Washington demanded from Tehran, Mr. Witkoff told Breitbart News in An interview That the United States wanted to completely dismantle Iran’s nuclear program, which does not mean enrichment and close its three most important facilities in Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan.
Iranian officials have often said that closing the nuclear program would form a red line, and Mr. Araghchi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, responded quickly to Mr. Witkoff in interviews with Iranian media. Iran, he said, had paid “with blood” for his civilian nuclear program – a reference to Nuclear scientists murdered by Israel. The right to enrich uranium to a civil quality, he said, was a matter of “national pride” and non -negotiable.
But after Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Araghchi met In Oman, both parties emerged with a reconciling tone, which describes the negotiations as productive and encouraging. They said conversations would proceed to technical teams that usually negotiate details about nuclear facilities and financial issues related to sanctions.
Oman’s Foreign Minister, Badr Albusaidi, said in A post on social media That the conversations had included on Sunday “useful and original ideas that reflect a shared wish to reach an honorable agreement.”
Mr. Araghchi visited Saudi -Arabia before he met the Americans and immediately traveled to the United Arab Emirates after he met Mr. Witkoff.
It was not immediately clear whether Saudi Arabia and the VAE are interested in a joint nuclear company with Iran.
Both countries said they are enthusiastic for a deal Between Tehran and Washington to prevent a regional war, but they also both have ambitions Build civilian nuclear programs.
In 2020 the Emirates became the first Arab country Open a nuclear power plant, Saying that nuclear energy needed to reduce its dependence on oil, but the agreement with the United States prohibits enriching uranium. That concerned that it could cause a race between Arab countries for nuclear programs.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former Iranian diplomat and member of his nuclear negotiating team in 2015, originally wrote about the idea of a regional nuclear consortium in 2023 an article In the bulletin of the atomic scientists. Mr. Mousavian, now a scholar at Princeton, wrote it with physicist at that university, Frank von Hippel.
In an interview, Mr. Mousavian said that if the proposal progresses, the different concerns of America would tackle. It would remove the immediate threat of Iran’s nuclear program by reducing the enrichment capacity and stock. He said that it would also tackle the worries in the longer term about the reversing of Iran, as it had left the nuclear deal one year after Mr Trump had left the Nuclear deal in 2018.
“If Trump announces a regional nuclear deal, it will be a big win,” said Mr. Mousavian. “It removes Iran’s immediate and future threat and contains enrichment ambitions in the region and brings new deals for Americans.”
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