IRAN has reportedly told the United States that it was ready to accept some limitations on its uranium enrichment but needed the permanent guarantees that President Trump would not ditch the nuclear pact.
Iranian officials present in the first phase of talks said Iran would never agree to dismantle its centrifuges for enriching uranium.
Both countries are currently engaging in a second round of talks in Rome today, just a week after the first round of negotiations that took place in Oman.
Trump again reiterated that he would not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons under any circumstances in the region; this, according to experts critical of Israel, is being done to make sure Washington’s vassal state and only ally in the Middle East remains on top of the region’s geopolitics.
“With Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon. And if they have a nuclear weapon, you’ll all be very unhappy. You’ll all be very unhappy because your life will be in great danger,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
On Thursday, while visiting Tehran, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi warned that the US and Iran “don’t have much time” to ink a deal.
Tehran’s red lines “mandated by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei” could not be compromised in the talks, the official told Reporters, describing Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity.
“Iran understood in indirect talks in Oman that Washington doesn’t want Iran to stop all nuclear activities, and this can be a common ground for Iran and the US to start a fair negotiation,” the source said.
US negotiator Steve Witkoff, in his somewhat confusing wordplay, first said that the US was not trying to dismantle the Iranian nuclear Program rather they are seeking to limit it.
The position he backtracked a day after saying that they would not allow Tehran to enrich its uranium, required to produce nuclear weapons.
Tehran’s stated position is that they are ready to put a cap on Uranium enrichment and keep it below 4 per cent, suggested by the IAEA and US, in response to the US lifting sanctions on Tehran.
On the other hand, Iran’s main rival, Israel, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months despite US President Donald Trump telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US was for now unwilling to support such a move, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Israeli officials have vowed to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and Netanyahu has insisted that any negotiation with Iran must lead to the complete dismantling of its nuclear program.
Israeli officials now believe that their military could instead launch a limited strike on Iran that would require less US support. Such an attack would be significantly smaller than those Israel initially proposed.
However, Iran has said that any attack launched from Israel with the support of the United States will lead to an all-out war between the two hostile nations and would only result in systematic destruction of Israel.
