U.S. and Iran Resume Nuclear Talks... Key Sticking Point Is "Uranium Enrichment"

The United States and Iran have resumed negotiations on the nuclear issue for the first time in eight months.

According to Reuters, AFP and other outlets on the 6th (local time), the U.S. and Iranian delegations began talks on the Iranian nuclear issue on Tuesday morning in Muscat, the capital of Oman. It has been eight months since dialogue was suspended after Israel and the United States successively carried out airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June last year. From the U.S. side, White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner attended. From Iran, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi took part. Local media also reported that the commander of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, appeared at the talks.

On the 6th (local time), Abbas Araghchi (left), Iran's foreign minister who visited Oman for talks with the United States on nuclear issues, and Badr al Busaidi, Oman's foreign minister, are in discussion. Photo by EPA Yonhap News

Iranian outlets including Mehr News Agency reported that the talks are being held in an indirect format, with Omani officials shuttling between the two sides instead of direct contact between the U.S. and Iranian representatives. Last year’s negotiations were also indirect talks mediated by Oman.

The United States has been pressuring Iran to resume nuclear negotiations by hinting at the possibility of military intervention, using the anti-government protests that began in December last year as a turning point. The biggest sticking point in the current talks is considered to be Iran’s uranium enrichment activities.

The United States has demanded that Iran completely abandon uranium enrichment, calling for “zero enrichment,” but Iran regards this as a matter of sovereignty and is firmly rejecting it. Iran maintains that it will continue uranium enrichment activities, even if this is done through a framework involving third countries in the Middle East region. In addition, the United States hopes to put not only Iran’s nuclear issue but also its ballistic missile development program and its support for proxy armed groups in neighboring countries on the negotiating table.

Iran, facing a situation in which the very survival of its Islamic theocratic system is threatened by the fallout from the anti-government protests, has agreed to talks, but is drawing a clear line that issues of national defense and security other than its nuclear program cannot become subjects of negotiation.