Iran: “No Deal”

🇺🇸 U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Iran must make a “meaningful” reduction in its uranium enrichment capacity to secure an agreement with Washington. 

“If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60% enriched fuel?” Vance told Reuters, calling enrichment a “basic threshold issue.”

Iran Slams Door On Nuclear Talks: No Deal Unless US Meets Its Conditions

United States Vice President JD Vance has called for Iran to make a “meaningful” reduction in its uranium enrichment capacity as part of an agreement to end the war, a demand experts say may signal a softening of Washington’s earlier insistence that Tehran abandon enrichment altogether.

His comments come amid hardline rhetoric from other senior US officials. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reiterated that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, while President Donald Trump has warned the war will end through either “the nice way or the not-so-nice way”.

The source said that “Vance’s comments are Washington’s ideas and requests. … Americans are free to make requests and have ideas, but they are at ​odds with Iran’s demands.”

Vance had said on October 5th that Tehran must make a significant reduction in nuclear enrichment.

“I think if they want to show a commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, they would do something meaningful on ​their enrichment capacity,” he told Reuters.

He claimed that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and President Masoud Pezeshkian were in talks with the US, but added that it was “unclear how much authority they wield within Iran’s power structure.”

“One of the things we picked up on is it’s not totally clear how their country makes decisions,” he went on to say.

US President Donald Trump also said again this week that nobody knows who is in charge in Iran.

“The problem is actually the opposite: it lies in the contradictory positions and mixed messaging from US officials,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in response.

Tehran has repeatedly vowed that it will not compromise on its peaceful nuclear enrichment program. Trump has repeatedly claimed that Iran’s nuclear program has been “obliterated.” However, US intelligence reports have refuted this.

The Wednesday Reuters report follows a Qatari Foreign Ministry statement to reporters saying that US–Iran talks were ongoing.

“I can confirm that the talks are continuing and the exchange of messages between different parties is continuing via Qatar and its regional partners,” Qatari Foreign Ministry official Ibrahim al-Hashmi said during a press briefing.

Last month, Iran was reported to have relayed a proposal to the US, offering to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume nuclear talks in exchange for a cessation of hostilities and the US lifting its naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Trump publicly rejected the reported offer and has since renewed his threats to resume bombardment of Iran.

At the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in September, Iran said that Tehran is demanding an end to the fighting on all fronts, a halt to US acts of aggression, the lifting of Washington’s naval blockade, an end to its economic war on Iran, and the release of Iranian assets in order for talks to resume.

As part of its overall demands for a final agreement, Iran is also demanding sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and a US military pullout from the region.

“The position of the Islamic Republic of Iran is completely clear and firm,and ​the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened until our seven conditions, based on the Islamabad ⁠memorandum of understanding, are met,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said over the weekend.