Iran offered US three-stage nuclear deal with same enrichment cap as 2015 deal — report

Iran on Saturday proposed a three-stage deal that would cap its uranium enrichment to the same levels agreed to in the abandoned 2015 deal in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions, three diplomatic sources tell the Iran International news outlet.

Tehran would temporarily decrease uranium enrichment to 3.67%, while Washington would permit it to access frozen financial assets and to export its oil in the first phase, according to the proposal reportedly presented by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Oman on Saturday.

In the second phase, the US would lift more sanctions and prevent the snapback of UN sanctions, and in exchange, Iran would allow the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency to resume its inspections of nuclear sites, while also carrying out the “additional protocol,” allowing the nuclear watchdog to perform surprise inspections of undeclared sites, the report says.

In the final stage, in exchange for Iran’s transfer of enriched uranium stockpiles to a third country, the US Congress would approve the nuclear deal, and the Trump administration would lift primary and secondary sanctions.

The sources add, however, that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei only agreed to the talks to “buy more time” for Iran to rebuild its air defenses destroyed by Israel in airstrikes in October, “and to restore its capacity to produce surface-to-surface missiles which were damaged in that same Israeli attack.”

The sources say Witkoff welcomed the offer, which surprised Iranian negotiators on Saturday.

Witkoff on Monday indicated that the administration was seeking a deal that would limit rather than destroy Iran’s nuclear program, with a low-level cap on uranium enrichment and checks that Iran was not advancing potential weaponization.

The next day, however, he hardened his stance and said that any agreement would require the Islamic Republic to “stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.”