Trump recently said he had sent a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei urging new talks on Tehran's nuclear programImage: Iranian Supreme Leader'S Office/ZUMAPRESS/dpa/picture allianc
U.S. Sends Iran Proposal on Nuclear Deal, Amid Reports of Uranium Enrichment Ramp-Up
New York Times-June 1st2025
The preliminary U.S. Proposal came as a confidential U.N. Report described an Iranian initiative that had multiplied Tehran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium.
David E. SangerFarnaz Fassihi and Maggie Haberman
David E. Sanger reported from Washington, and Farnaz Fassihi and Maggie Haberman from New York.
The United States presented its first formal proposal to Tehran for elements of a nuclear deal on Saturday, just hours after U.N. inspectors reported a major surge over the past three months in the size of Tehran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium.
The document was described by officials familiar with the diplomatic exchanges as a series of bullet points but not a full draft of an agreement. It calls for Iran to cease all enrichment of uranium and proposes the creation of a regional consortium to produce nuclear power that would involve Iran; Saudi Arabia and other Arab states; and the United States.
The offer marked the first time since negotiations began in early April that the lead American negotiator, Steve Witkoff, had put forth a proposal on paper.
The delivery of the document was made public in a tweet by Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, who said it had been delivered by his counterpart from Oman, which has been mediating the talks. The White House later confirmed the action.
“President Trump has made it clear that Iran can never obtain a nuclear bomb,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. “Special Envoy Witkoff has sent a detailed and acceptable proposal to the Iranian regime, and it’s in their best interest to accept it. Out of respect for the ongoing deal, the administration will not comment on details of the proposal to the media.”
Many experts are skeptical that Iran’s aging supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will approve a deal that would essentially shut down the advanced nuclear production facilities that the Iranians have spent billions to construct, and that have been the targets of sabotage by the United States and Israel.
Mr. Araghchi said Iran would “respond to the U.S. proposal in line with the principles, national interests and rights of the people of Iran.” In recent weeks, Iranian officials have publicly rejected U.S. demands to terminate all nuclear enrichment, declaring they would never give up their right to produce civilian-grade nuclear fuel. That capability gives Iran the status of a threshold nuclear state, one that could rapidly build a weapon if it decided to.
The revelation of Iran’s production surge of uranium enriched to 60 percent, just below bomb-grade, was a vivid illustration of its effort to gain leverage in the negotiation. The increase gives Tehran the capability to produce the fuel for roughly 10 weapons, up from around five or six when President Trump was inaugurated in January.
A pair of reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency, obtained by The New York Times, portray an Iranian regime that has decided to surge ahead with its production, presumably to gain leverage in the negotiations with Mr. Witkoff, who is the administration’s envoy for the Middle East.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/us/politics/iran-nuclear.html


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