The Trump administration has proposed an interim arrangement that would permit Iran to continue to enrich uranium at low levels while negotiations on a comprehensive agreement are hammered out among the United States, Iran and other countries, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter and two foreign diplomats.
The U.S. outlined the proposal in recent indirect negotiations with Iran in Oman led by special envoy Steve Witkoff, the sources said.
Axios first reported on the proposal.
The American proposal would effectively buy time for more diplomacy without requiring drastic concessions from either Tehran or Washington. It also attempts to finesse the West’s goal of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons while accommodating Tehran’s demand to retain a civilian nuclear program. The same issue dominated previous nuclear negotiations with Iran.
The Trump administration’s proposal shares some similarities with the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that Trump heavily criticized. He pulled the U.S. out of that agreement during his first term. At the time, Trump said the 2015 accord failed to address Iran’s ballistic missile program or its support of proxy forces in the region. But it appears his administration’s proposal to Iran does not address those issues either.
The interim arrangement would require Iran to scale back its uranium enrichment to a much lower level associated with civilian energy production, instead of the near weapons-grade level of 60 percent it has been pursuing, the sources said. At the same time, the United States would ease some of the sanctions that have squeezed Iran’s economy.
Under the proposal, the United States would negotiate the construction of nuclear power reactors and enrichment plants for Iran, which would be overseen by a consortium of regional countries.
Once the nuclear facilities were in place and operating, Iran would be required to halt all uranium enrichment, the sources said. The precise timelines for such a plan have yet to be determined but analysts say it could take years to be implemented.
Iran has yet to formally respond to the proposal.
But Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday that Iran will not give up enriching uranium on its territory. Khamenei, however, did not reject the indirect talks with the U.S. and also did not say what specific level of uranium enrichment Iran would insist on.
Asked about the U.S. proposal, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an email: “President Trump has made it clear that Iran can never obtain a nuclear bomb. Special Envoy Witkoff has sent a detailed and acceptable proposal to the Iranian regime, and it’s in their best interest to accept it. Out of respect for the ongoing deal, the Administration will not comment on details of the proposal to the media.”
Trump said in a post on his social media site today that he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that they discussed “the fact that time is running out on Iran’s decision pertaining to nuclear weapons, which must be made quickly!”
Trump added that he had told Putin “that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement.”