Iran Negotiations Over One Word: Enrichment
Can the US Stop Iran’s Nuclear Push?
The latest round of talks with Iran over their nuclear program has clarified the essential diplomatic question: Will Iran be allowed to enrich uranium or not?
Iran’s position is clear: The Islamic Republic has a right to enrich uranium and will not be coerced into giving up that right.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that if the United States’ goal was to deprive Iran of its “nuclear rights,” Tehran would never back down on that front.
Araghchi was speaking in Doha a day ahead of another round of planned nuclear talks between Iran and the US in Oman.
“If the goal of the negotiations is to deprive Iran of its nuclear rights, I state clearly that Iran will not back down from any of its rights,” state media quoted Araghchi as saying.
US diplomats have made it clear that the American position is that Iran will not enrich.
Both US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio have stated this position explicitly in separate interviews.
While Iran has stood firm over what it views as a “right” of a sovereign nation, it is nevertheless willing to engage in a little diplomatic tapdancing over Iran’s ability to enrich.
Iran is open to accepting temporary limits on its uranium enrichment, its deputy foreign minister said Tuesday, while adding that talks with the United States have yet to address such specifics.
The reality of the situation is that any negotiated restriction on uranium enrichment is by definition “temporary.” Similarly, any sovereign nation with the resources to do so is always going to be at liberty to enrich uranium and develop nuclear weapons.
Any country wanting to build its own nuclear arsenal needs the technical capability to enrich uranium. Without enrichment, no nation can independently pursue nuclear weapons development.
“Temporary” limits on uranium enrichment would mean that Iran is “temporarily” prevented from pursuing nuclear weapons.
If Iran dismantles its enrichment facilities, it would be giving up the pursuit of nuclear weapons.
For obvious reasons, Iran does not want to give up its uranium enrichment capabilities.
For reasons which are equally obvious, the Trump Administration is insisting that Iran give up its uranium enrichment capabilities.
These negotiations are ultimately about which choice Iran is going to make, and which choices the United States—and by extension the rest of the world—will make as a direct consequence.
Can the Trump Administration persuade Iran to choose to give up uranium enrichment? Hopefully they can. Otherwise, these negotiations will fail.