NYT: Iran will dilute rather than hand over uranium stockpile as part of deal with US

The United States and Iran have honed in on four key points of negotiation during talks to permanently end the fighting that began with a joint US-Israeli offensive back in February, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

While various key issues being discussed by the US and Iran during the Pakistan-mediated talks have already been well documented, the report, citing US officials and diplomats familiar with the matter, suggested that the sides are much closer to clinching a deal than previously suggested.

According to the newspaper, the deal will include agreements on an extended suspension of uranium enrichment by Iran; the dilution of Tehran’s existing stockpile of enriched uranium; the dismantling of Iranian nuclear sites; and the right for international nuclear watchdogs to conduct snap inspections in the Islamic Republic.

Regarding the matter of suspending uranium enrichment, US officials were quoted saying that Washington wants Iran to halt its enrichment activities for 20 years. In return, they said Iran offered to stop enrichment for 10 years. The US officials said they expect the sides to ultimately reach a compromise of 15 years, though the report noted it was unclear if President Donald Trump would be okay with that after recently saying “it’s gotta be a real 20 years.”

As for Iran’s existing enriched uranium stockpiles, the issue appeared to hit a bump last month, when Iran’s supreme leader issued a directive that the near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad.

Israeli officials told Reuters at the time that Trump had assured Israel that any peace deal would stipulate that the highly enriched uranium must be sent out of Iran.

However, according to the New York Times report, the US will not require Iran to move the uranium out of the country and will instead work with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency to dilute the stockpile.

The IAEA estimates that Iran ​had 440.9 kg of ⁠uranium enriched to 60%, one step below weapons-grade, when Israel and the US attacked Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025. How much of that has survived is unclear, though the IAEA chief has indicated it is largely intact.

Iranian sources said last month that the country’s top officials believe sending the uranium abroad would leave the country — which denies seeking nuclear weapons, but enriched uranium to near weapons grade and aims to destroy Israel — more vulnerable to future attacks by the US and Israel. While Trump claimed last week that US forces could remove the enriched uranium even without a deal, he also said “there’s no reason to” because “It’s entombed” and therefore cannot be accessed by the regime anyway.

The third issue being negotiated, according to the Times, deals with Washington’s demand for Iran to dismantle its three main nuclear sites at Natanz, Fordo and Isfahan.

All three sites were hit in US airstrikes during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran last June, and are believed to have been heavily damaged.

Iran has shown partial willingness to comply with this demand, the report said, being open to closing two of the three sites while leaving the third open.

The final issue being discussed is a US demand for Iran to allow international nuclear agencies to conduct snap inspections of any nuclear sites within Iran, at any time they choose to do so.

It was unclear whether Iran would agree to this demand, the report said, given that many of the nuclear sites are located within Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military bases, which in the past have been closed to international inspectors.

Although US officials cited in the report touted the considerable progress that has been made in negotiations, it was not clear whether recent developments, including the flare-up of fighting with Israel on Sunday and Monday as well as US strikes on Iran early Tuesday in response to the downing of an Apache helicopter, would result in additional setbacks.

While the report painted these four issues as the key matters being discussed, Iran has made other demands of the US that Washington is unlikely to agree to, such as regarding sanctions relief.

It also wants the release of frozen assets even before a final agreement is in place, something rejected by Trump.