Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s chief Iran negotiator, said on Sunday that Washington insists Tehran must give up all enrichment of nuclear fuel, affirming that President Donald Trump wants to solve the conflict diplomatically.
The fourth round of indirect Iran-US negotiations was held last week in Oman. No date has been set for a fifth round.
In an interview conducted before he left Abu Dhabi after a four-day Middle East trip, Trump said Iran has “to move quickly or something bad—something bad's going to happen.”
The US President also added that Iran has his administration's proposal on a nuclear deal.
Trump said Iran wants to trade with the United States, according to excerpts from an interview with Fox News.
“Iran wants to trade with us, OK? If you can believe that I'm OK with that. I'm using trade to settle scores and to make peace, But I've told Iran, we make a deal. You're going to be really - you're going to be very happy,” he said.
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.
A day later, Witkoff told ABC News that Trump “has been very clear, he wants to solve this -- this conflict diplomatically and with dialogue. And he's given -- he's given all the signals. He has directly sent letters to the supreme leader. I have been dispatched to deliver that message as well, and I've delivered it.”
He added, “We have one very, very clear red line, and that is enrichment. We cannot allow even 1 percent of an enrichment capability. We've delivered a proposal to the Iranians that we think addresses some of this without disrespecting them.”
The US envoy said everything begins with a deal that does not include enrichment. “We cannot have that. Because enrichment enables weaponization. And we will not allow a bomb to -- to get here.”
But Witkoff noted that there are all kinds of ways for Washington to achieve its goals in this negotiation. “We think that we will be meeting sometime this week in Europe. And we hope that it will lead to some real positivity,” he said.
In return, Trump faces opposition from his own party who fear removing sanctions on Iran could enable them to funnel money into terrorist groups.
Republican lawmakers have warned that a nuclear deal between the US and Iran could help fund terrorism, according to The Telegraph.
They said any deal would likely involve the US offering sanction relief in exchange for guarantees from Tehran to scale back its uranium enrichment program.
“Any lift in sanctions economically could give them access to reserves and capital that gives them the ability to fund terrorism and also build a conventional military,” a Republican congressman told The Telegraph on Saturday.
Although Tehran and Washington have both said they prefer diplomacy to resolve the decades-long nuclear dispute, there are several red lines negotiators will need to resolve to reach a new deal and avert future military action.
Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, told NBC News on Wednesday that Tehran is prepared to sign a deal to give up its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium but continue to enrich uranium to lower levels for civilian use, in exchange for the lifting of all sanctions.
This has proved a sticking point for Republicans in the House and Senate, who have written to the president to urge him to ensure that all of Iran’s ability to enrich uranium is “permanently eliminated.”
In nearly identical letters signed by over 300 House and Senate Republicans, GOP members warned that a deal would enable Iran to “play for time” and that the scale of Iran’s nuclear build-out is so significant that it would be “impossible” to verify future uranium enrichment is carried out for civilian purposes only.
“The Iranian regime should know that the administration has Congressional backing to ensure its ability to enrich uranium is permanently eliminated,” GOP lawmakers wrote.
A Republican Congressional aide added: “There is certainly concern that any deal short of complete dismantlement would give Iran relief while empowering its human rights abuses, fueling their proxies, and failing to curtail their nuclear ambitions.”
