Iran has proposed the creation of a joint nuclear enrichment company involving regional Arab countries and American investments as an alternative to the demand of Washington to dismantle its nuclear program, according to four Iranian officials familiar with the plan.
The Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi offered the idea to an American special envoy, Steve Witkoff, when the two men had direct and indirect talks to Oman on Sunday, according to the four Iranian officials. They asked not to be named because they discussed sensitive problems.
On Tuesday, several Iranian media published first -page accounts of the “new plan on the negotiation table” of Iran. One of these points of sale was the Farhikhtegan newspaper, which is affiliated with Revolutionary Guards Corps. This raised the question of whether the proposal was “service or betrayal”.
The office of Mr. Witkoff, the State Department and the National Security Council did not respond to requests for comments on negotiations.
It was not immediately clear how much a regional nuclear company could be possible if it involved Iran and two of its greatest rivals, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran and the United States have not had diplomatic relations for 45 years, and private American companies can also hesitate to invest in Iranian nuclear reactors.
President Trump, visiting Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, criticized Iran to support proxy militant groups in the Middle East, but said that diplomatic resolution with Iran would make the region safer.
“I want to conclude an agreement with Iran,” said Trump. “If I can conclude an agreement with Iran, I will be very happy, if we want to make your region and the world a safer place. “”
But Iranian leaders, he warned, must make a decision soon, otherwise they will face economic pressures even more than sanctions. “The time has come for them to choose,” he said. “Right now, we don’t have much time to wait.”
Iran’s proposal implies the creation of a nuclear consortium with three countries in which Iran would enrich uranium at a low level, under what necessary for nuclear weapons, then send it to other Arab countries for civil use, According to the four Iranian officials and reports.
An agreement that would allow Iran to enrich uranium at 3.67 percent would bring you similarity with the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers. But a major difference would be the presence in the field of representatives of other countries – perhaps even the United States – to provide an additional layer of surveillance and involvement.
The four Iranian officials said that contrary to the 2015 nuclear agreement, which had a 15 -year expiration date, the joint venture plan would be permanent. This would allow Mr. Trump, who withdrew the United States from this agreement, to say that he had obtained much more from Iran than President Barack Obama.
Ali Vaez, Iranian director of the international crisis group, said that if the company’s idea was new and not tested, negotiators had to try a different approach. “They are essentially at a point where they must go beyond the maximum requests of zero sum so that the two parties save face,” he said.
Before Sunday’s talks in Oman, it appeared that Iran and the United States were heading for a dead end, increase the risk of military confrontation. Iranian and American officials both declared that they wanted to avoid war and resolve the dead ends diplomatically.
After weeks of contradictory remarks on what Washington demanded exactly from Tehran, Mr. Witkoff told Breitbart News in an interview that the United States sought to completely dismantle the nuclear program of Iran, which means no enrichment, and closed its three key installations in Natanz, Fordi and Isfahan.
Iranian officials said on several occasions that the nuclear program closed a red line, and Mr. Araghchi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, quickly replied to Mr. Witkoff in interviews with the Iranian media. Iran, he said, had paid “with blood” for its civil nuclear program-a reference to nuclear scientists murdered by Israel. His right to enrich uranium to a civil note, he said, was a question of “national pride” and not negotiable.
But after Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Araghchi met for three hours in Oman, the two parties emerged in a conciliatory tone, describing negotiations as productive and encouraging. They said the talks would carry out expert technical teams who generally negotiate details on nuclear facilities and financial problems related to the reduction of sanctions.
Oman’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Badr Albusaidi, said in an article on social networks that talks on Sunday had included “useful and original ideas reflecting a shared wish to achieve an honorable agreement”.
Mr. Araghchi visited Saudi Arabia before meeting the Americans and went to the United Arab Emirates immediately after meeting Mr. Witkoff.
It was not immediately clear if Saudi Arabia and water are interested in a joint nuclear company with Iran.
The two countries said they were impatient to agree between Tehran and Washington to avoid a regional war, but they also have ambitions to build civilian nuclear programs.
In 2020, the Emirates became the first Arab country to open a nuclear power plant, saying that it needed nuclear energy to reduce its dependence on oil, but its agreement with the United States prohibits it from enriching it from uranium. This expressed his concerns about the conduct of a race between the Arab nations for nuclear programs.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, former Iranian diplomat and member of his nuclear negotiation team in 2015, initially wrote on the idea of a regional nuclear consortium in 2023 in an article in the bulletin of atomic scientists. Mr. Mousavian, now a researcher in Princeton, wrote it with the physicist of this university, Frank von Hippel.
In an interview, Mr. Mousavian said that if the proposal progressed, it would respond to several of America’s concerns. It would remove the immediate threat of the Iranian nuclear program by reducing its enrichment and stock capacity. He said it would also respond to longer -term concerns about Iran’s reversal course, as did a year after Trump left the nuclear agreement in 2018.
“If Trump announces a regional nuclear agreement, it will be a big victory,” said Mr. Mousavian. “It removes the immediate and future threat of Iran and contains ambitions of enrichment in the region and brings new transactions for the Americans.”
