{"id":9349,"date":"2025-06-02T18:04:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T18:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=9349"},"modified":"2025-06-02T18:04:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T18:04:30","slug":"iran-to-reject-us-nuclear-proposal-says-iranian-diplomat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=9349","title":{"rendered":"Iran to reject US nuclear proposal, says Iranian diplomat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Iran is poised to reject a US proposal to end a decades-old nuclear dispute, an Iranian diplomat said on Monday, dismissing it as a &#8220;non-starter&#8221; that fails to address Tehran&#8217;s interests or soften Washington&#8217;s stance on uranium enrichment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Iran is drafting a negative response to the US proposal, which could be interpreted as a rejection of the US offer,&#8221; the senior diplomat, who is close to Iran&#8217;s negotiating team, told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>The US proposal for a new nuclear deal was presented to Iran on Saturday by Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, who was on a short visit to Tehran and has been mediating talks between Tehran and Washington.<\/p>\n<p>After five rounds of discussions between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and President Donald Trump&#8217;s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, several obstacles remain.<\/p>\n<p>Among them are Iran&#8217;s rejection of a US demand that it commit to scrapping uranium enrichment and its refusal to ship abroad its entire existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium &#8211; possible raw material for nuclear bombs.<\/p>\n<p>Tehran says it wants to master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and has long denied accusations by Western powers that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In this proposal, the US stance on enrichment on Iranian soil remains unchanged, and there is no clear explanation regarding the lifting of sanctions,&#8221; said the diplomat, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.<\/p>\n<p>Araqchi said Tehran would formally respond to the proposal soon. The U.S. State Department declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>Tehran demands the immediate removal of all US-imposed curbs that impair its oil-based economy. But the U.S. says nuclear-related sanctions should be removed in phases.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of institutions vital to Iran&#8217;s economy, including its central bank and national oil company, have been blacklisted since 2018 for, according to Washington, &#8220;supporting terrorism or weapons proliferation&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Trump&#8217;s revival of &#8220;maximum pressure&#8221; against Tehran since his return to the White House in January has included tightening sanctions and threatening to bomb Iran if the negotiations yield no deal.<\/p>\n<p>During his first term in 2018, Trump ditched Tehran&#8217;s 2015 nuclear pact with six powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran&#8217;s economy. Iran responded by escalating enrichment far beyond the pact&#8217;s limits.<\/p>\n<p>Under the deal, Iran had until 2018 curbed its sensitive nuclear work in return for relief from US, EU and UN economic sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>The diplomat said the assessment of &#8220;Iran&#8217;s nuclear negotiations committee&#8221;, under the supervision of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was that the U.S. proposal was &#8220;completely one-sided&#8221; and could not serve Tehran&#8217;s interests.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, the diplomat said, Tehran considers this proposal a &#8220;non-starter&#8221; and believes it unilaterally attempts to impose a &#8220;bad deal&#8221; on Iran through excessive demands.<\/p>\n<p>Nuclear standoff raises Middle East tenstions<\/p>\n<p>The stakes are high for both sides. Trump wants to curtail Tehran&#8217;s potential to produce a nuclear weapon that could trigger a regional nuclear arms race and perhaps threaten Israel. Iran&#8217;s clerical establishment, for its part, wants to be rid of the devastating sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>Iran says it is ready to accept some limits on enrichment, but needs watertight guarantees that Washington would not renege on a future nuclear accord.<\/p>\n<p>Two Iranian officials told Reuters last week that Iran could pause uranium enrichment if the U.S. released frozen Iranian funds and recognised Tehran&#8217;s right to refine uranium for civilian use under a &#8220;political deal&#8221; that could lead to a broader nuclear accord.<\/p>\n<p>Iran&#8217;s arch-foe Israel, which sees Iran&#8217;s nuclear programme as an existential threat, has repeatedly threatened to bomb the Islamic Republic&#8217;s nuclear facilities to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n<p>Araqchi, in a joint news conference with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo, said: &#8220;I do not think Israel will commit such a mistake as to attack Iran.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tehran&#8217;s regional influence has meanwhile been diminished by military setbacks suffered by its forces and those of its allies in the Shi&#8217;ite-dominated &#8220;Axis of Resistance&#8221;, which include Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iraqi militias.<\/p>\n<p>In April, Saudi Arabia&#8217;s defence minister delivered a blunt message to Iranian officials to take Trump&#8217;s offer of a new deal seriously as a way to avoid the risk of war with Israel.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran is poised to reject a US proposal to end a decades-old nuclear dispute, an Iranian diplomat said on Monday, dismissing it as a &#8220;non-starter&#8221; that fails to address Tehran&#8217;s interests or soften Washington&#8217;s stance on uranium enrichment. &#8220;Iran is drafting a negative response to the US proposal, which could be interpreted as a rejection [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}