Iran has proposed the creation of a joint nuclear enrichment company that involves US regional Arab countries and investments as an alternative to Washington’s demand to dismantle its nuclear program, according to four family family officials.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi proposes the idea of a special American envoy, Steve Witkoff, when the two heroes directly and indirectly speak in Oman on Sunday, agreed to the four Iranian officials. They asked not to be named because they were arguing delicate issues.
On Tuesday, several Iranian media published first -end accounts of the “new plan at the negotiating table” of Iran. One of those points of sale was the Farhikhtegan newspaper, which is affiliated with the body of the Revolutionary Guard. He raised the question of whether the proposal was “a service or betrayal.”
A spokesman for Mr. Witkoff, Eddie Vásquez, denied Tuesday that the proposal had emerged in the conversations. “The statement of unidentified sources that a joint idea of the nuclear enrichment company was part of the last round of Iran conversations in Oman is completely false,” he said. “It was never floated or discussed.”
It was not clear immediately how feasible it could be a regional nuclear company if I will involve Iran and two of its biggest rivals, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran and the United States do not have diplomatic relations for 45 years, and private US companies can also be reluctant to invest in Iran’s nuclear reactors.
President Trump, in a visit to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, criticized Iran for his support for militant power groups in the Middle East, but said that a diplomatic resolution with Iran would make the region safer.
“I want to make a deal with Iran,” Trump said. “If I can make a deal with Iran, I will be very happy, if we are going to make your region and the world a safer place. “
But Iranian leaders, he warned, need to make a decision soon, or otherwise they will face even more economic pressure for sanctions. “The moment is now for them to choose from,” he said. “At this time, we don’t have much time to wait.”
Iran’s proposal implies the establishment of a nuclear consortium of three countries in which they would enrich Uranium to a low slope, under those nuclear weapons, and then sent it to other Arab countries for civil use, According to the four Iranian officials and news reports.
An agreement that would allow Iran to enrich Uranium at 3.67 percent would have similarity to the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers. But a big difference would be the presence in the field of representatives from other countries, perhaps even the United States, to provide an additional layer of supervision and participation.
The four Iranian officials said that, unlike the 2015 nuclear agreement, which had an expiration date of 15 years, the joint business plan would be permanent. That would allow Mr. Trump, who brought the United States out of that agreement, argue that he had obtained more significant than Iran President Barack Obama.
Ali Vaez, director of Iran of the International Crisis Group, said that although the idea of risk was new and not tested, negotiators needed to try a different approach. “Basically they are at a point where they do beyond the demands of summer sum for both parties to save their faces,” he said.
Before Sunday’s conversations in Oman, it seemed that Iran and the United States were heading to a dead point, increasing the risk of military confrontation. Iranian and American officials have said they want to avoid war and resolve the diplomatically confrontation.
After the week or contradictory comments about what Washington demanded that Tehran, Mr. Witkoff told Breitbart News in an interview that the United States sought to completely dismantle Iran’s nuclear program, which means there is no enrichment, and closed its three key facilities in Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan.
Iranian officials have said many times that closing the nuclear program would constitute a red line, and Mr. Araghchi, the Foreign Minister, quickly responded to Mr. Witkoff in interviews with the Iranian media. Iran, he said, had paid “with blood” for his civil nuclear program, a reference to nuclear scientists killed by Israel. His right to enrich uranium in a civil degree, he said, was a matter of “national pride” and not negotiable.
But after Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Araghchi for three hours in Oman, both parties emerged with a conciliatory tone, describing negotiations as productive and encouraging. They said that conversations would process expert technical teams that generally negotiate details about nuclear facilities and financial problems related to the relief of sanctions.
Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said in a publication on social networks that Sunday’s conversations had included “useful and original ideas that reflect a shared desire to reach an honorable agreement.”
Mr. Araghchi visited Saudi Arabia before meeting the Americans and traveled to the United Arab Emirates immediately after meeting Mr. Witkoff.
It was not clear immediately if Saudi Arabia and the EAU are interested in a joint nuclear company with Iran.
Both countries have said that they are anxious for an agreement between Tehran and Washington to avoid a regional war, but they also have ambitions to build civil nuclear programs.
In 2020, the Emirates became the first Arab country to open a nuclear energy plant, saying that it needed nuclear energy to reduce its dependence on oil, but its agreement with the United States forbids enriching uranium. That increased groups that could trigger a career among Arab nations for nuclear programs.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former Iranian diplomat and a member of his nuclear negotiation team in 2015, originally wrote about the idea of a regional nuclear consortium in 2023 in the Atomic Scientists Bulletin. Mr. Mousavian, now scholarly in Princeton, wrote it with a physicist at that university, Frank von Hippel.
In an interview, Mr. Mousavian said that if the proposal progresses, he would address several of the Conerns of the United States. It would eliminate the immediate threat of the Iran nuclear program by reducing its enrichment and reserve capacity. He said that he would also address the longest concerns about Iran’s Revenite Course, as he did a year after Trump left the nuclear agreement in 2018.
“If Trump announces a regional nuclear agreement, it will be a great victory,” said Mousavian. “It eliminates Iran’s immediate and future threat and contains enrichment ambitions in the region and brings new agreements for Americans.”
