Iran agrees in principle to dispose of highly-enriched uranium, White House official says
Iran has agreed in principle to dispose of highly-enriched uranium in negotiations with the U.S., although a deal likely won’t be signed this weekend, a senior Trump administration official said Sunday morning.
The official said the U.S. believes Iran’s supreme leader has approved the template for a deal, but a final agreement still needs to be made before anything is signed.
“The Iranian system is frustratingly slow and opaque, and if I was playing devil’s advocate, you know, I’m sure that there are people out there who blame us and what’s happened in the last couple months for that fact,” the official said.
The deal will be a two-step process, with the immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for lifting the U.S. blockade, followed by negotiations on a mechanism for Iran to give up various parts of its nuclear program, the official said.
The U.S. wants Iran to commit to disposing of highly enriched uranium and to resolving other nuclear issues, the official said. The official said the administration believes this is a better deal than the 2015 deal agreed upon under former President Barack Obama, which allowed nuclear enrichment up to a certain level.
Officials were still working through details of the mechanism for how the uranium would be disposed of with the people who have been empowered by the supreme leader to negotiate.
Neither side disputes that stockpiled enriched material will be disposed of, it’s a question of how at this point, the official said. The Iranians have not pushed back on an ultimate timeline for how long the delayed enrichment will be, the official said.
The official also said “I think we’re actually in a very good place” for a deal.
“We’re in a place where we can get the straits open, where we can accomplish the president’s objectives when it comes to the nuclear material, but I actually think that there are very serious ways in which, you know, the narrative that’s out there can undermine a good outcome for the country,” the official added.
As a condition of the deal, the U.S. would lift its blockade on ships entering and exiting Iranian ports. There would be coordination between U.S. Central Command and Gulf countries to ensure ships can pass safely, but that coordination should not be understood as a tolling system, the official said. It will be a two-step process.
Vice President JD Vance, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner have been involved in the negotiations. The U.S. is trying to involve every Middle Eastern ally, the official said.
The official said that the U.S. “can’t force the Iranians to overthrow their own government,” and the Trump administration is going to “deal with the government we have now in Iran.”
Mr. Trump said Saturday that the peace deal is “largely negotiated,” but he posted on social media one day later that he told his representatives “not to rush into a deal” and “time is on our side.”
The difference between now and when the first six-week military campaign ended, “we see the Iranians making some serious accommodations on these questions that we didn’t see before.”
