Iran and the United States remain divided over how sanctions relief should be tied to limits on Tehran’s nuclear program, a senior Iranian official said Sunday, as student protests flared again with the start of the university term.
“The last round of talks showed that US ideas regarding the scope and mechanism of sanctions relief differ from Iran’s demands,” the official told Reuters on Sunday.
The official said new talks are planned for early March and that Tehran would consider exporting part of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, reducing enrichment levels, and forming a regional uranium-enrichment consortium — but only if Washington recognizes Iran’s right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.
“Negotiations will continue, and there is a possibility of reaching an interim agreement,” the official said.
The US and Iran last week held a second round of Oman-mediated talks in Geneva aimed at avoiding the prospect of US military action against the Islamic Republic, after Washington sent two aircraft carriers and other military assets to the region to increase pressure on Tehran.
In parallel, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told Axios on Saturday that several people close to President Donald Trump were advising him against bombing Iran, but he urged Trump to ignore them.
Axios cited officials it described as senior Trump advisers as saying the president has not yet decided whether to strike Iran, and the US outlet said options presented to Trump include killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his son.
But the US administration is also showing some limited flexibility in the talks with Iran. According to Axios, a senior US official said Washington would consider Iran’s proposal for symbolic uranium enrichment, provided it ensures there is no path to a nuclear bomb.
This US-Iran escalation is the second wave in a matter of months, after Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war in June, in which the United States joined by carrying out air strikes on Iran that it said were meant to deter Tehran from developing its nuclear program. Iran responded by firing missiles at the US Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar before Trump announced the war had ended by agreement.
For his part, US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said on Saturday that Trump is asking why Iran has not “capitulated” in the face of the US military buildup intended to pressure it into a nuclear deal.
In an interview with Lara Trump, the wife of Trump’s son, on Fox News, Witkoff said he met former crown prince Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s toppled shah, who has not returned to Iran since before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew his father. Witkoff added, “I met him at the president’s direction,” without giving details.
Pahlavi, who lives in the United States, told a crowd in Munich last week that he was ready to lead the country toward a “secular democratic future,” after Trump said regime change would be best for the country.
Witkoff’s remarks came after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a draft proposal for an agreement with Washington would be ready within days. Trump said on Thursday Iran had a maximum of 15 days to reach a deal addressing concerns about its nuclear program.
According to AFP, Western countries accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies, insisting it has the right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.
Iran, for its part, is trying to negotiate an end to sanctions that have badly hurt its economy, AFP reported. Iranian state television quoted President Masoud Pezeshkian as saying his government has pledged not to surrender “even if all the world’s powers stand unjustly to force us to bow.”
At the same time as pressure on Tehran mounts, anti-government protests resurfaced with the start of the new university term. Demonstrations were held at several universities in the capital on Saturday, and clashes left students injured, some from rock-throwing.
Protesters chanted slogans including “death” to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during ceremonies marking 40 days of mourning for victims killed at the height of the latest protests.
These were the first protests since anti-government demonstrations erupted in December. More than 6,000 people were killed, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, while official figures put the toll at 3,117.
