Iran enters critical nuclear talks with US insisting deal is within reach | Iran

Iran begins critical talks with the United States on its nuclear program on Thursday, with Washington insisting a deal can be reached as long as Iran maintains its willingness to give up its symbolic right to enrich uranium, allow Tehran to dilute its highly enriched uranium stockpile and not impose checks on Iran’s ballistic missile program.

Three preconditions for success are seen as critical by Iranian diplomats, but it remains unclear whether Trump will accept these parameters.

Iranian officials claim that US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who traveled to Geneva for talks with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, had already accepted these principles in two previous rounds of indirect talks. However, it is possible for Trump to reverse these conditions; This step will inevitably lead to a conflict between the two countries that could quickly consume the entire Middle East.

Witkoff appears to have asked Iran to agree to enrichment only below 5%, roughly the level it agreed to in the 2015 nuclear deal and well below weapons grade.

A source in contact with the Iran negotiating team said members were surprised by the loose terms of the offer made by Kushner and Witkoff last week as a first step. According to this source, the main demand was that Iran agree to limit enrichment to 5 percent and convert the program to civilian use.

But the source said there was no offer of immediate sanctions relief or diplomatic relations: Iran would remain economically handcuffed. Still, the next step will be negotiations to gradually ease sanctions and start a dialogue, the source said.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said before leaving for Geneva that his goal was to “reach a fair and just agreement as soon as possible.”

“Our basic positions and beliefs are very clear. Iran will not seek to develop nuclear weapons under any circumstances; at the same time, we Iranians will never give up our right to peacefully enjoy nuclear technology.”

“It is possible to reach an agreement, but only if diplomacy is given priority.”

In his State of the Union address in the early morning Tehran time, Trump veered sharply from the negotiating path that Witkoff had warned about Iran’s ballistic missiles reaching Europe, accused Iran of being the top sponsor of terrorism, and once again claimed that Iran had not promised to give up nuclear weapons. He also claimed that 32,000 demonstrators were killed by Iranian authorities in recent protests.

The US president added that Iran ignored a warning that “no future attempts should be made” to rebuild its nuclear weapons programs following American attacks on the country’s nuclear facilities last June. “We eliminated it and they want to start all over again,” Trump said. He added that “Iran is currently pursuing its sinister ambitions again.”

Just two hours before the speech, Araghchi wrote on social media that Iran would not develop nuclear weapons under any circumstances.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei tried to liken Trump to Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. He accused Trump and his administration of waging a “disinformation + misinformation campaign” against Iran.

“Whatever his claims about Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the death toll during the January riots are nothing more than a repetition of ‘big lies’.” wrote on Baqaei X.

Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the US House intelligence committee, said after a briefing with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “We have not heard a single compelling reason why now is the time to start a new war in the Middle East.”

For Iran, the presence of Raphael Grossi, head of the UN nuclear watchdog, along with Omani mediators at the Geneva talks is seen as important because Grossi has the legal authority to indicate whether he thinks any access Iran offers to verify its commitments to enrichment matches the watchdog’s needs.

Araghchi’s team is also eager to find ways for Trump to argue that the deal he got is better than the deal Barack Obama negotiated in 2015. Tehran is aware that this is a prerequisite for Trump in terms of US domestic politics.

Grossi said that before he left for Geneva, the United States made it clear that it would not discuss it for weeks or months. “A very dangerous situation is developing in the background of these negotiations,” he said, referring to the massive and now-completed US military buildup in the region.

“Enrichment is our right… this technology is valuable to us,” Araghchi said in an interview with CBS this week. The United States is unclear whether the demand for zero enrichment in Iran would also apply to enrichment for medical purposes.

Speaking to the Iranian newspaper Entekhab, political science professor at Tehran University, Hamzeh Safavi, said, “It is unlikely that Iran will accept zero enrichment, but it is possible that it will accept symbolic enrichment. What is important for Iran is the right to enrichment, and the issue of enrichment should not become a means of taking hostage.”

Iran’s agreement to suspend enrichment is not unprecedented. In 2003, then-secretary of the supreme national security council, Hassan Rouhani, reached an agreement with France, Germany and Britain to suspend all uranium enrichment and processing activities and allow emergency inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog.

Iran’s negotiating team, which has been asked to present specific proposals at the Geneva talks, will seek to ease irreversible sanctions, such as the release of Iran’s frozen assets held abroad.

Nearly two months after the start of anti-regime demonstrations across Iran, protests at universities continue for the fifth day.