Iran's Nuclear Slowdown May Prop Up US Hopes to Ease Tensions

FILE PHOTO: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visits the Iranian centrifuges in Tehran, Iran June 11, 2023. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visits the Iranian centrifuges in Tehran, Iran June 11, 2023. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
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Iran's Nuclear Slowdown May Prop Up US Hopes to Ease Tensions

FILE PHOTO: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visits the Iranian centrifuges in Tehran, Iran June 11, 2023. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visits the Iranian centrifuges in Tehran, Iran June 11, 2023. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Iran's limited steps to slow its buildup of near-weapons-grade uranium may help ease US-Iranian tensions but do not signify progress toward a wider nuclear deal before the 2024 US elections, say analysts.

According to UN nuclear watchdog reports seen by Reuters, Iran has reduced the rate at which it is making uranium enriched up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% that is weapons grade, and has diluted a small fraction of its 60% stockpile.

But that stockpile continues to grow. Iran now has nearly enough uranium enriched to 60%, if refined further, for three nuclear bombs, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) theoretical definition. It also has enough uranium enriched to a lower level to make even more bombs.

Iran has also failed to resolve IAEA concerns about uranium traces found at two undeclared sites or to make progress on restoring monitoring cameras despite long-standing pressure from the IAEA and Western powers to do so.

According to Reuters, non proliferation analysts say Iran's nuclear slowdown may be enough for the United States and Iran to keep exploring what they describe as "understandings" - which Washington has never acknowledged - to lower tensions over nuclear and other issues.

That does not necessarily imply any real curbs to Iran's nuclear program ahead of the Nov. 5, 2024 US election, they said, but it may help US President Joe Biden avoid a politically damaging crisis with Iran as he seeks re-election.

"The slowdown of the 60% accumulation is a clear sign Tehran is open to advancing the de-escalatory 'understandings' with Washington," said Henry Rome of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Rome said the slowdown and expectations of a US-Iranian prisoner exchange this month, set "the stage for additional diplomacy this fall around the nuclear program, albeit without the goal of reaching a new deal until after the US presidential elections.

"For Washington, there is probably a low bar for what Iran needed to do for the purposes of 'de-escalation,'" he added. "Iran has likely crossed that bar."

Biden's main objective appears to be keeping a lid on tensions, which range from Tehran's nuclear program to attacks by Iranian-backed militias on US interests in the Middle East.

"Iran has taken its foot off the gas in some areas but it's not pumping the brakes on the nuclear program," analyst Eric Brewer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative said of Iran's recent steps, calling them "de-escalation lite."

"The nonproliferation value of the steps Iran took is relatively small, but the point of the (US) de-escalation policy isn't to solve the nuclear program right now but to build in a political cushion and avoid a crisis," he said.

"Until next year's election, it seems the administration wants calm and is willing to pay the price in vast enrichment of the Iranian regime," said Elliott Abrams, former US President Donald Trump's special representative for Iran now at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Abrams was alluding to rising Iranian oil exports despite US sanctions and the transfer of $6 billion in Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar as part of the prisoner exchange.

While the Biden administration has argued that the money is going from one restricted account to another and can only be spent for humanitarian purposes, it seems clear Iran will have greater access to them in Qatar than it did in South Korea.

The State Department has danced around whether it has struck any 'understandings' with Iran in part because an admission that it has cut a deal with Tehran over the Iranian nuclear program could by law trigger a US congressional review.

A State Department spokesman on Tuesday said he had nothing to add beyond mid-August comments in which the department denied any US-Iran nuclear pact and did not rule out the possibility of unwritten understandings.

After taking office in January 2021, Biden tried to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal under which Iran had restricted its nuclear program in return for relief from US, European Union (EU) and UN sanctions.

Trump, a Republican, reneged on that deal in 2018, arguing it was too generous to Tehran, and restored broad US economic sanctions against Iran.

Efforts to revive that deal appeared to die about a year ago, when diplomats say Iran rejected what EU mediators called their final offer.

Diplomats regard that deal as beyond resurrection because of Iran's advances - notably in running advanced centrifuges that have a much bigger output - but analysts said there may be room for more serious nuclear talks after the US elections.

Asked why Iran slowed its program, a Western diplomat said "I think that's part of discussions that they've been having with the US and it's part of the wider deal, the non-deal deal."

"It's better than nothing, but I would hardly count it as a massive bit of progress," he added.



What We Know about the Man Charged in the Attack in Boulder, Colorado

Law enforcement officers detain a suspect, after an attack that injured multiple people, in Boulder, Colorado, US June 1, 2025, in this picture obtained from social media. X/@OpusObscuraX/via REUTERS
Law enforcement officers detain a suspect, after an attack that injured multiple people, in Boulder, Colorado, US June 1, 2025, in this picture obtained from social media. X/@OpusObscuraX/via REUTERS
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What We Know about the Man Charged in the Attack in Boulder, Colorado

Law enforcement officers detain a suspect, after an attack that injured multiple people, in Boulder, Colorado, US June 1, 2025, in this picture obtained from social media. X/@OpusObscuraX/via REUTERS
Law enforcement officers detain a suspect, after an attack that injured multiple people, in Boulder, Colorado, US June 1, 2025, in this picture obtained from social media. X/@OpusObscuraX/via REUTERS

A man armed with a makeshift flamethrower and other incendiary devices launched a fiery attack on demonstrators in Colorado who were calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Twelve people were injured and the FBI described the violence as a “targeted terror attack.”

The suspect, identified by the FBI as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, yelled “Free Palestine” during the attack Sunday, according to Mark Michalek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Denver field office. Authorities believe Soliman acted alone.

He has been charged with multiple state counts and a federal a hate crime, the Associated Press said.

How did the attack unfold? Authorities said the attacker targeted volunteers with Run for Their Lives, which organizes running and walking events to call for the immediate release of Israelis being held in Gaza. The hostages were captured by the Hamas group during an incursion into southern Israel in 2023 that precipitated the latest Israel-Hamas war.

The group gathered Sunday at the Pearl Street pedestrian mall, a four-block area in downtown Boulder frequented by tourists and students. Witnesses said the suspect first used the flame thrower, then threw two Molotov cocktails into the crowd. Soliman was arrested at the scene.

Video from the scene shows a shirtless Soliman shouting at onlookers while holding two clear bottles containing a transparent liquid. Another video shows a witness shouting: “He’s right there. He’s throwing Molotov cocktails,” as a police officer with his gun drawn advanced on the suspect.

Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty told reporters Monday that authorities uncovered 16 unused Molotov cocktails.

One witness, Alex Osante, said Soliman appeared to catch himself on fire during the attack. A booking photo shows him with a bandage over one of his ears. Police said he was taken to the hospital after he was arrested but haven’t described his injuries.

What was his motive? Witnesses said Soliman yelled “Free Palestine” as he launched the attack. An FBI affidavit said he confessed to the attack.

He told investigators “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” that he specifically targeted the Run for Their Lives group and that he had researched and planned the attack for more than a year, according to the affidavit.

“This act of terror is being investigated as an act of ideologically motivated violence based on the early information, the evidence, and witness accounts. We will speak clearly on these incidents when the facts warrant it,” FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said in a post on X.

The Israel-Hamas war has inflamed global tensions and contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States. A week earlier, two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot to death in Washington, D.C., by a man who yelled “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza” as he was led away by police.

What charges does Soliman face? Soliman participated in a brief court hearing Monday afternoon via video from the Boulder County jail.

He is charged federally with commission of a hate crime, which carries a sentence of life in prison when the charge includes attempted murder. Colorado state charges include 16 counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of using an incendiary device and 16 counts of attempted use of an incendiary device.

A judge set a $10 million cash-only bond on the state charges.

Additional charges are possible in federal court. The Justice Department plans to seek a grand jury indictment.

Who is Soliman? Soliman was born in Egypt and he moved three years ago to Colorado Springs, where he lived with his wife and five children, according to state court documents. He previously spent 17 years living in Kuwait.

The Department of Homeland Security said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and has been living in the US illegally since his visa expired in February 2023.

Soliman worked as an Uber driver and had passed the company’s eligibility requirements, which include a criminal background check, according to a spokesperson for Uber.

An online resume under Suliman's name says he was employed by a Denver-area health care company working in accounting and inventory control, with prior employers listed as companies in Egypt.

Who was injured? The people injured in the Pearl Street attack range in age from 52 to 88. Their injuries — some serious and some minor — were consistent with reports of people being set on fire, Redfearn said.

Authorities initially said there were eight victims, but said four others later were identified.

Photos from the scene showed a burning woman lying on the ground in a fetal position and a man helping to put out the flames using a jug of water.

“The immense wave of positive messages we’ve received is another signal of the health and strong spirits of our community,” Rabbi Yisroel and Leah Wilhelm, directors of the Rohr Chabad House at the University of Colorado said in a statement. “We encourage everyone to respond energetically to this attack by celebrating Shavuot joyously, by attending the reading of the Ten Commandments, and by recommitting to the heritage and traditions we hold so dear.”