The Iranian Tasnim News Agency reported on Wednesday that a senior National Security Council official in the country claimed the first round of peace talks with the United States did not address the country’s enriched uranium stockpile.
The official, National Security Council Deputy Secretary Ali Baqeri, claimed instead that the talks were focusing on reopening commercial transit in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian terror state has effectively made normal commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz impossible since March, threatening to attack random ships to disrupt the global economy.
Baqeri’s claim that enriched uranium is not part of the conversation with American negotiators directly contradicts comments from the White House, including from President Donald Trump himself, insisting that Washington will not sign onto any peace agreement that does not include long-term limits on Iranian nuclear development and the confiscation and destruction of enriched uranium.
President Trump launched Operation Epic Fury in February, a military plan to dramatically limit Iran’s military capabilities and eliminate the most violent jihadist leaders in the terror state. On its first day, Operation Epic Fury killed the country’s “supreme leader,” Ali Khamenei, and has since eliminated dozens of senior leaders. Trump agreed to an indefinite ceasefire in April and negotiators from both countries have been discussing a long-term peace agreement since then, aided by mediators in Pakistan and Qatar.
According to Baqeri, those talks are yielding some slow progress, but do not have anything to do with Iran’s stockpile of fissile material. The official insisted that enriched uranium was “not on the agenda of the talks” at all in his comments made during his participation at the First International Security Forum in Moscow, Russia.
Baqeri added that agreement on some issues did not guarantee that talks would culminate in a solid deal.
“Until we agree on all issues, we consider that we have not agreed on anything,” Tasnim quoted Baqeri as saying.
The Tasnim report followed a declaration from Iranian state television claiming that a draft peace agreement exists to address the situation in the Strait of Hormuz. Reports do not indicate that this alleged deal involved any discussion of Iran’s illicit nuclear program. According to Reuters, Iran’s state broadcaster claimed that the new deal would allow for Iran to bring maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz up to its regular levels within a month and Trump had agreed to dramatically decrease America’s military presence in the Middle East. The United States would also allegedly agree to end its current blockade of Iranian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, in place in response to Iran’s blockade and threats to ships from all other nations.
The White House denied the reports on Wednesday. Its rapid response social media account announced that the report from Iranian state media “is not true and the MOU [memorandum of understanding] they ‘released’ is a complete fabrication. Nobody should believe what Iranian state media is putting out.”
President Trump and high-ranking officials such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio have repeatedly asserted that they would not accept any peace agreement that did not address Iran’s illicit nuclear development, in particular its enrichment of uranium at rates incompatible with any known civilian use. As recently as this Monday, Trump suggested on his website Truth Social that negotiations were approaching an agreement to end Iranian possession of enriched uranium.
“The Enriched Uranium (Nuclear Dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he wrote, “destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent, being witness to this process and event.”
Trump also described the talks as “proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner” this week, including Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Reports from Iran indicated that the negotiating team would focus on pressuring Qatar to unfreeze Iranian money stuck in the country as a result of anti-terrorism sanctions.
“Tehran’s broader negotiating position is that all of its frozen assets globally must be unfrozen and fully released as part of any eventual comprehensive agreement, according to the source,” the independent outlet Iran International reported.
Iran sent some of its most high-profile officials to Doha, Qatar, this week for negotiations towards a peace agreement.
Some reports suggested that the talks could be compromised this week after the U.S. military announced that it had conducted airstrikes against Iran once more, this time targeting vessels with the capacity to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz and missile launching sites. The Iranian regime’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responded with its usual threats against American assets, but claimed that it had downed an American drone — a claim not verified at press time by the U.S. military — while saying it would act against America if airstrikes occurred in the future. The ceasefire, at press time, appears to be holding outside of the isolated strikes.
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