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Iran is likely to reject a US proposal to move its stockpile of enriched uranium to a third country, such as Russia, as part of efforts to curb its nuclear programme, the Guardian reported on Tuesday.
The issue was raised in recent talks in Oman between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US envoy Steve Witkoff. Iran insists the stockpile remain under UN supervision inside the country.
Iranians “do not need to enrich past 3.67%,” Donald Trump’s special envoy and chief negotiator Steve Witkoff said Monday.
3.67 percent is the uranium enrichment limit set by Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with the Obama administration.
Witkoff told Fox News that the negotiations with Iran are “going to be very much about verification of the enrichment program, and ultimately verification of weaponization.”
“That includes missiles — the type of missiles they have stockpiled — and it includes the trigger for a bomb,” he added.
The Trump administration had earlier called for the full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program. However Witkoff’s remarks now indicate the US negotiators may allow some uranium enrichment in Iran.
Iran’s decision to declare Muscat as the venue for the second round of talks came after Italy rejected Tehran’s request to hold the talks at the Omani embassy in Rome, two informed sources told Iran International.
The Italian side wanted the talks to take place under the auspices of the Italian government in Rome, the sources said, adding that discussions among the four sides are ongoing.
Twelve Iranian lawyers who represented protesters during nationwide antigovernment protests in 2022 have been sentenced to three years in prison and fined, a human rights group said, underscoring a continuing crackdown on civil society.
A Revolutionary Court in Mashhad handed down the verdicts on charges of propaganda against the establishment and propaganda in favor of Israel according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
Speaking to Iran International, defense attorney Mohammad Olyaifard said the lawyers were punished for doing their jobs.
“These verdicts are part of the ongoing crackdown on civil institutions,” Olyaifard said.
Initially charged in 2022, the lawyers were briefly included under a general amnesty directive but in January 2025 Iranian authorities reopened the case and launched a new round of investigations.
The Islamic Republic has long targeted independent lawyers and civil society advocates. After the nationwide protests beginning in September 2022 were quashed with deadly force, the state has kept a tight lid on civil and political activism with arrests and executions of demonstrators.
Iran says the second round of its negotiations with the US will be held in Muscat and not Rome, IRNA reported citing the Foreign Ministry spokesman.
"It has been agreed that Muscat will continue to host the second round of negotiations, which will be held on Saturday, April 19," Esmaeil Baghaei said, denying both Iranian and Italian announcements that the talks were due to be held elsewhere.
The announcement came just two hours after Iran's foreign minister told Arab counterparts that the talks would be held in Europe, according to his official X account.
Italy's foreign ministry had confirmed earlier on Monday it would host the negotiations on Saturday.
