Witkoff said to have welcomed proposal, to Iranians' surprise
Iran offered US a nuclear agreement with same enrichment cap as 2015 deal — report
Three-stage proposal would reportedly see Tehran temporarily cap enrichment at 3.67%, transfer highly enriched uranium to 3rd country, boost UN oversight at nuclear facilities
This
combination of file photos created on April 9, 2025, shows US Middle
East envoy Steve Witkoff speaking to reporters outside the West Wing of
the White House in Washington, DC, on March 6, 2025 (L), and Iran's
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaking to AFP during an interview at
the Iranian consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, March 7, 2025. (Mandel
Ngan and Amer Hilabi / AFP)
Tehran proposed during talks on Saturday a three-stage deal that would cap its uranium enrichment to the same levels agreed to in the abandoned 2015 deal in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions, dissident Iranian news outlet Iran International reported Thursday, citing three diplomatic sources.
According to Iran International, Iran’s proposal would temporarily decrease uranium enrichment to 3.67%, the level set in the 2015 deal that Trump withdrew from during his first term. In exchange, the US would permit Iran to access frozen financial assets and export its oil in the first phase, the outlet said. Uranium is considered weapons-grade when it is enriched to 90%.
In the second phase, the US would lift more sanctions and prevent the snapback of UN sanctions, according to Iran International. In exchange, Iran would reportedly allow the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency to resume its inspections of nuclear sites, while also carrying out the “additional protocol,” allowing the nuclear watchdog to perform surprise inspections of undeclared sites.
In the final stage, the report said, Iran would transfer stockpiles of highly enriched uranium to a third country, the US Congress would ratify the nuclear deal, and the Trump administration would lift primary and secondary sanctions.
White House special Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff was said to have surprised the Iranian delegation by welcoming the offer, which was presented by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during their talks in Oman. The report comes as Witkoff and Araghchi are set to hold a second round of talks in Rome on Saturday.
Witkoff had on Monday indicated that the White House was seeking a deal that would limit rather than destroy Iran’s nuclear program, with a low-level cap on uranium enrichment and checks that Iran was not advancing potential weaponization.
The next day, however, he hardened his stance and said that any agreement would require the Islamic Republic to “stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, right, visits an exhibition of the country’s nuclear
achievements, at his office compound in Tehran, Iran, June 11, 2023.
(Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Via AP)
A diplomatic source outside Tehran was quoted by Iran International as saying that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had agreed to the talks with Witkoff as a ruse to “buy more time” for Iran to rebuild its air defenses, which were destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in October, “and to restore its capacity to produce surface-to-surface missiles which were damaged in that same Israeli attack.”
That Israeli attack came in response to Iran’s massive October 1 ballistic missile attack — Tehran’s second-ever assault on Israel after a missile-and-drone attack last April.
The final stage reported by Iran International appeared to contradict a report in Britain’s Guardian newspaper on Tuesday that said Tehran was set to reject a proposal that it move its enriched uranium to a third country. Later that day, Russia, which powers Iran’s sole nuclear reactor, declined to say if it would agree to take Iran’s stock of enriched uranium as part of a nuclear deal.
Iran, whose leaders are sworn to destroy Israel, says it does not seek nuclear weapons, but has since December increased by about half its already sizable stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium, and is on track to roughly quadruple its production of uranium ore this year, according to international nuclear watchdogs.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Director General, Rafael Mariano Grossi, center, visits an exhibition
of Iran’s nuclear achievements, in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, April 17,
2025. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP)
The enrichment rate is far beyond what is necessary for a civilian nuclear program and a short step away from weapons-grade. On Thursday, while visiting Tehran, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi warned that the US and Iran “don’t have much time” to ink a deal.
The New York Times reported Thursday that Trump, who has threatened to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites, had “waved off” such an attack planned by Israel for next month. Trump, who instead chose to initiate the negotiations with Tehran, partially confirmed the report later Thursday, saying: “I wouldn’t say ‘waved off’,” but “I’m not in a rush to do it.”
US President Donald Trump (left) welcomes
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House in Washington on
April 7, 2025. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP)
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office touted the premier’s “countless” actions against Iran’s nuclear program, but did not deny that Trump had blocked a strike.
Trump, who has renewed his first term’s “maximum pressure” sanctions against Iran, announced the renewed talks with Iran in a meeting with Netanyahu at the White House earlier this month. Hebrew media later reported that Witkoff had updated Netanyahu of the announcement only hours earlier, shortly after the Israeli leader arrived in Washington for the brief, unexpected visit.
Netanyahu reportedly did not receive assurances that Israel’s demands would be met in the talks, nor regarding what would happen if negotiations fell through or Iran reneged on a deal.