Witkoff adjusts Iran approach based on public reactions - Jewish Insider

The United States sanctioned the International Bank of Yemen (IBY) on Thursday for providing financial support to the Iran-backed Houthis, in what the Treasury Department described as part of efforts to counter threats to commercial shipping.

“We are committed to disrupting Houthi financial networks and banking access as part of our whole-of-government approach to eliminating Iran’s threat network,” the department said in a statement.

The sanctions also target three senior IBY officials — Kamal Hussain Al Jebry, Ahmed Thabit Noman Al-Absi, and Abdulkader Ali Bazara.

The plan was presented by Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi in writing to US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff during the three-hour talks.

Tehran proposed that in the first stage, it would temporarily reduce its uranium enrichment level to 3.67% in exchange for access to financial assets frozen by the United States and permission to export its oil, the diplomatic sources told Iran International.

In the second phase, the sources added, Iran would permanently end high-level enrichment and restore the United Nations nuclear watchdog's inspections if the United States lifts further sanctions on Iran and persuades Britain, Germany and France to refrain from triggering the so-called snapback of UN sanctions on Tehran.

In this phase, Iran would also commit to implementing the Additional Protocol, a supplementary agreement that allows the UN nuclear watchdog to carry out surprise inspections at sites not declared to the agency.

Tehran ended that compliance in February 2021 after Trump in his first term withdrew from a previous international deal over Iran's nuclear program in 2018.

The third and final stage calls for the US congress to approve the nuclear agreement and for Washington to lift both primary and secondary sanctions, while Iran would transfer its highly enriched uranium stockpiles to a third country.

Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon and the US intelligence assesses that Tehran has not yet resolved to build one, but the Trump administration has warned Iran it must come to a nuclear deal or face attack.

A second round due to be held in Rome on Saturday could prove more rocky than the amicable first round in which Iran submitted its plan for a deal.

Washington toughened its public stance on Tuesday, with both the White House and Witkoff saying that the US goal in negotiations would be the wholesale end of Iran's nuclear program, a notion Iran has repeatedly called a non-starter.

Iran's proposal welcomed by Witkoff

US envoy Witkoff welcomed the proposals presented by the Iranian side, the sources told Iran International, surprising the Iranian delegation in Muscat.

Iranian officialdom appeared cheered by the first round of talks, with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei remarking in a meeting with senior military commanders on Tuesday that "the initial steps have been implemented well".

A diplomatic source outside Tehran expressed skepticism to Iran International of the Islamic Republic's intentions in the talks and said it seeks to delay a foreign attack by staggering an agreement over several complex phases.

“One of the reasons Iran’s Supreme Leader agreed to allow the resumption of negotiations is the need to buy more time, because he knows Iran currently lacks the ability to defend itself against another airstrike," the source said.

“Iran is mainly stalling to buy time to rebuild its air defense capabilities, which were all destroyed by Israel in late October, and to restore its capacity to produce surface-to-surface missiles which were damaged in that same Israeli attack,” the source added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday that his actions had previously thwarted Iran's ability to build a bomb, appearing to respond to a New York Times report that President Trump had halted Israeli plans to attack Iran.

"Netanyahu has led countless secret and open actions in the campaign against Iran's nuclear program that only thanks to them Iran does not have a nuclear arsenal today," the statement said.

Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said on Wednesday Iran was "not far" from possessing an atomic bomb.

"It's like a puzzle: they have the pieces and maybe one day they could put them back together. There's still a long way to go before we get there. But they're not far away, we have to admit that," he said in an interview with Le Monde.

"It's not enough to tell the international community 'we don't have nuclear weapons' for them to believe it. We have to be able to verify it," Grossi said.

In its latest report in March, the IAEA warned that over the past three months, Iran had significantly expanded its reserves of highly enriched uranium, and if this trend continues, its stockpile could theoretically be enough to produce six nuclear bombs.

“We believe that the relationship between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia will be beneficial for both countries and the two countries can complement each other,” Ali Khamenei told visiting Saudi defense minister Prince Khalid bin Salman on Thursday.

Khamenei said that the expansion of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia has its enemies, adding: "These hostile motives must be overcome and we are ready in this regard," according to the Supreme Leader's official website.

Prince Khalid, according to the report, told Khamenei: "I have come to Tehran with the agenda of expanding relations with Iran and cooperation in all fields, and we hope that the constructive talks will provide stronger relations between Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran than in the past."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday that his actions delayed Iran’s nuclear program by nearly a decade, in the first response to a New York Times report that US President Donald Trump halted Israeli plans to attack Iran.

"Netanyahu has led countless secret and open actions in the campaign against Iran's nuclear program that only thanks to them Iran does not have a nuclear arsenal today," the statement said.

"These actions delayed Iran's nuclear program by about a decade, thanks to the prime minister's insistence on standing up to domestic and foreign opposition to his assertive policy against Iran."

“As the prime minister has said many times: Israel will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” the office added.

Earlier, The New York Times reported that Israel had prepared to strike Iranian nuclear facilities in May, aiming to delay Tehran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon by a year or more.

Trump ultimately chose not to support the plan, according to administration officials and others cited by the newspaper, instead opening a diplomatic track with Iran to negotiate limits on its nuclear program.

Saudi Arabia’s defense minister used a high-level visit to Tehran to signal Riyadh’s opposition to military confrontation with Iran, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing analysts close to the Saudi leadership.

“Saudi is clearly sending a message to Tehran that it will not be a conduit in any fashion towards an attack on Iran,” said Ali Shihabi, a Saudi commentator close to the royal court. “The kingdom supports President [Donald] Trump’s efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the nuclear crisis, and doesn’t want a war.”

Prince Khalid bin Salman’s visit comes just days before Iran is due to resume nuclear talks with the United States. Bin Salman is the highest-ranking Saudi royal to visit Iran in decades and includes the kingdom’s ambassador to Yemen.