Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is subordinate to “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reportedly claimed that a nuclear deal with the administration of President Donald Trump was “in reach” on Sunday – even as his top officials reject Washington’s most important demands.
President Trump announced negotiations with Iran to prevent a war in April, stunning international observers given Iran’s active support for various jihadist elements currently at war with Israel. Iran is the world’s premier state sponsor of terrorism, funding a network including such terror entities as Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, and the Yemeni Houthi terrorists.
Those negotiations have yielded four rounds of “indirect” talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff hosted by the government of Oman. Reports indicate that Iranian officials have insisted on both sides passing notes between each other through the Omanis, rather than sitting in the same room and having a conversation. This allows Khamenei to tell the Iranian public that no direct conversations, which he called “unintelligent and dishonorable” in February, are taking place.
While both sides have called the talks constructive, neither has indicated to the public that they have hashed out any provisions of a new nuclear agreement. The U.S. government has stated that the intended goal of the talks is to get Iran to stop funding terrorism and developing fuel for the construction of a nuclear weapon, while Iran states that the objective is to get America to lift its sanctions on the country.
Despite the lack of publicly known progress on substantive issues, Pezeshkian claimed in remarks on Sunday alongside Qatari officials that a deal is “within reach,” according to the Iranian state outlet PressTV. The Iranian president asserted that Mideast nations can “bring peace, security, prosperity, and progress to our nations” and, while stating that a deal was possible, added that America should “abandon its bullying tactics,” likely a reference to sanctions on Tehran for its terrorist activities.
Elsewhere in the same event, Pezeshkian was quoted as saying, “The closer Muslim nations and brotherly countries become—and the more they expand their cooperation—the more those who wish ill upon the Islamic Ummah will despair of sowing division and discord.”
His comments stood in jarring contrast to those of Araghchi, the man leading the talks with America, who insisted that Iran would continue its illicit enrichment of uranium, which Washington has complained has no civilian use, regardless of what it negotiates with America.
“If the US is interested in ensuring that Iran will not have nuclear weapons, a deal is within reach, and we are ready for a serious conversation,” Araghchi said in a social media message. But he added, “Enrichment in Iran, however, will continue with or without a deal.”
The Iranian top diplomat made similar comments in remarks to Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Sunday, according to Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
“Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi says Iran’s right to benefit from peaceful nuclear energy is non-negotiable,” IRNA relayed. “He stressed that Iran’s legitimate nuclear rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) must be respected and said if there is genuine political will on the other side and respect for Iran’s rights, Tehran is ready to pursue a win-win interaction in exchange for the termination of sanctions.”
Similarly, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters on Monday that stopping uranium enrichment, arguably the single most important American demand, was “absolutely non-negotiable.”
“This achievement is the result of decades of effort, hard work, and the sacrifices of our nuclear scientists,” Baqaei said, going on to accuse the Trump administration of a “lack of seriousness and good faith” for continuing to impose sanctions on Iran while negotiations take place.
The Trump administration announced several new rounds of sanctions last week, following the fourth round of Oman talks, on corporations that the Treasury Department said were aiding Iran in masking the origin of its oil to sell it to China, violating existing sanctions. The new sanctions affected nearly two dozen corporations, many of them shell corporations used to hide sanctions-violating commerce.
“Today’s action underscores our continued focus on intensifying pressure on every aspect of Iran’s oil trade, which the regime uses to fund its dangerous and destabilizing activities,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in announcing the new sanctions. “The United States will continue targeting this primary source of revenue, so long as the regime continues its support for terrorism and proliferation of deadly weapons.”
It is unclear how Tehran and Washington will reconcile their positions on enrichment.
“We have one very, very clear red line, and that is enrichment. We cannot allow even 1% of an enrichment capability,” Witkoff said during an interview on Sunday on ABC’s This Week. “Everything begins… with a deal that does not include enrichment … because enrichment enables weaponization. And we will not allow a bomb to get here.”
Witkoff made a similar remark in a recent interview with Breitbart News.
“An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line,” Witkoff asserted prior to the fourth and latest round of talks. “No enrichment. That means dismantlement, it means no weaponization, and it means that Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan — those are their three enrichment facilities — have to be dismantled.”
Trump himself suggested in an interview on Friday with Fox News that, beyond enrichment, he did not support Iran having a civil nuclear energy program at all.
“They have pure, unadulterated, good oil. And you say, why does somebody that has that kind of oil — other than being politically correct —” he argued, “but when you have unlimited amounts of oil and gas, why are you putting up — why do you need civil nuclear? I just don’t see it.”
“I think nuclear’s fine for civil, if you have a country with no oil. But if you’re sitting on one of the largest piles of oil in the world, why are you talking about putting up nuclear civil?” the president added.
The comments this week from both Witkoff and Araghchi echo what they said throughout the past week.
“Enrichment is one of the major achievements and a source of national pride. It has come at a high cost — including the lives of our nuclear scientists. It is absolutely non-negotiable,” Araghchi stated last week “From our point of view, enrichment must continue. There’s absolutely no room for compromise on that.”
Some reports, citing anonymous sources, suggest that Iran is open to accepting temporary pauses on uranium enrichment, but no dismantling of its enrichment facilities or nuclear program. These provisions echo was what in the defunct Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal brokered by former President Barack Obama. The Iranian government systematically violated that deal for years, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and President Trump withdrew from it in 2018 citing its inefficacy.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi acknowledged during remarks in June that the JCPOA continues to be in vigor technically , but lamented that it “exists only on paper and means nothing.”
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