‘Crucial stage’
In an interview published Wednesday by French newspaper Le Monde, the United Nations nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said Iran was “not far” from possessing a nuclear bomb, noting a day later that talks were “at a very crucial stage”.
During Trump’s first term, Washington withdrew from the 2015 accord between Tehran and world powers that offered Iran relief from international sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.
Tehran complied with the agreement for a year after Trump’s withdrawal before scaling back its compliance.
Araghchi was a negotiator of the 2015 deal. His US counterpart, Witkoff, is a real estate magnate Trump has also tasked with talks on Ukraine.
Iran currently enriches uranium up to 60 percent, far above the 3.67 percent limit in the deal but still below the 90 percent threshold required for weapons-grade material.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged European countries to decide whether to trigger the “snapback” mechanism under the 2015 agreement, which would automatically reinstate UN sanctions on Iran over its non-compliance.
The option to trigger the mechanism expires in October.
Iran has previously warned it could withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if the mechanism were triggered.
‘Non-negotiable’
Analysts had said the United States would push to include discussions over Iran’s ballistic missile programme and its support for militants in the Middle East.
But Araghchi said Saturday the US side had “not raised any issues unrelated to the nuclear topic so far”.
He said earlier this week Iran’s right to enrich uranium was “non-negotiable”, after Witkoff called for its complete halt. Witkoff had previously demanded only that Iran return to the ceiling set by the 2015 deal.
On Friday US ally Israel affirmed its commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, saying it had a “clear course of action” to do so, a stance Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Saturday.
“I will not give up on this, I will not let go of it, and I will not retreat from it, not even by a millimetre,” he said.
