Iran proposes regional nuclear venture in talks with US - NYT

A US senator warned that any deal with Iran must require full dismantlement of its nuclear program, including a complete ban on uranium enrichment.

“If Iran has any centrifuges, if it enriches uranium at any level, that means it can enrich it up to weapons grade,” Tom Cotton said in an interview, calling enrichment a red line echoed by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff.

Cotton dismissed Iran’s reported proposal for a regional enrichment consortium as likely insincere, citing Tehran’s refusal to abandon enrichment as evidence of weapons intent. “They don’t really care that much about civilian nuclear power,” he said.

“It's not just Iran's enrichment and their nuclear weapons, it's their other actions as well. They have a missile program that might be able to reach the United States in just a few years. So this is not just a problem for the Middle East, and they support terrorists throughout the regions like Hamas and Hezbollah.”

He warned that decisions are imminent and that President Trump remains committed to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. “This is coming to a head,” Cotton said.

"UAE and a couple other dozen countries around the nation, they have civilian nuclear power, and they don't enrich uranium. They buy it in ways that are safe and verifiable and can't be reprocessed into weapons. So let's see what Iran has to say about that. That's one of the things that Steve Witkoff is putting to them as a question."

He said he suspects Iran will, as in the past, try to delay and prolong negotiations to preserve its path toward a nuclear weapon. “But as President Trump said again just yesterday, we’ll never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapons program,” Cotton added.

Iran’s parliament said that the Islamic Republic faces no restrictions on nuclear research and can enrich uranium up to 93 percent based on its national needs.

“The Islamic Republic has no limitation in the field of research and development in the nuclear industry,” lawmakers wrote in a statement to IAEA chief Rafael Grossi.

“In case of any infringement on the legitimate and lawful rights of the Iranian nation in the agency’s upcoming report, and any alignment with the interests of the nation’s enemies, you will face a decisive reaction from the members of parliament,” the statement added.

Iran would approach negotiations with caution and resolve, rejecting any repeat of past concessions, said top Iranian cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi.

“Iran enters talks with prudence,” he said, adding that the country “will not tolerate such humiliation.”

The former presidential candidate and head of Islamic Revolution Document Center criticized US President Donald Trump’s billion-dollar arms agreement with Saudi Arabia, calling it “a form of plundering the region’s wealth.”

Pourmohammadi said regional nations were tied by a shared fate and said “Iran would not be indifferent to such a disgrace.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a two-hour meeting with Steve Witkoff, head of the US negotiating team on Iran, Israeli Channel 12 reported.

Details were not disclosed, but earlier, media reported that Netanyahu had been dissatisfied with President Trump’s recent stance toward the Islamic Republic and conveyed his anger to the White House.

In a statement by lawmakers addressed to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the group said that Iran's rights under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) — including nuclear research, development, and peaceful use — are non-negotiable and fully verifiable under the IAEA safeguards.

Read by presidium member Ahmad Naderi during a public session, the statement said, "According to Article 4 of the Treaty on the NPT, the great nation of Iran is entitled to three inalienable rights: first, the right to research and development; second, the right to produce; and third, the right to utilize nuclear energy."

The lawmakers argued that in accordance with this article of the NPT, "the Islamic Republic faces no limitations in nuclear research and development and can proceed with enrichment up to 93% based on its scientific, medical, and industrial needs."

The lawmakers also criticized the IAEA for what they called four decades of obstructing Iran’s peaceful nuclear development, and for relying on what they called politically motivated intelligence, particularly from Iran's archenemy, Israel.

Last month, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said in an interview with Le Monde that Iran was “not far” from being able to produce an atomic bomb, describing the country’s progress as “pieces of a puzzle” that could potentially come together.

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and remains under IAEA monitoring.

Also on Wednesday, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf condemned US President Donald Trump’s recent remarks in Riyadh in which he referenced Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program and Tehran's support for military proxies, calling them “delusional” and blaming US policies for instability in West Asia.

Speaking at the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States in Jakarta, Indonesia, Ghalibaf said, “The root of chaos in the West Asia region lies in the US regime’s support for the Zionist mafia.”

Responding to Trump’s allegations, also in Riyadh, that Iran is the region’s main source of instability, while offering a conditional nuclear deal, Ghalibaf said, “His remarks show he lives in illusion.”

“We advise him to open his eyes to the reality that resistance holds a deep place in the hearts of the people,” Ghalibaf said in reference to Tehran-backed regional armed groups.

“Instead of worrying about Iran’s internal affairs, he should be concerned about his own popularity, which has plummeted to historic lows for an American president,” Ghalibaf added.

The speaker also criticized the US for decades of hostile actions against Iran, including the 1953 coup, support for Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war, the downing of an Iranian passenger plane in 1988, and the assassination of Revolutionary Guard commander General Qassem Soleimani.

“The Islamic Republic has withstood maximum pressure and continues to challenge the global hegemonic system. Even US universities are feeling the impact of this resistance message,” he said, alluding to recent campus protests over the war in Gaza across the US.

Ghalibaf maintained that Iran does not seek nuclear weapons and called for regional security through cooperation among neighbors, “free from the interference of non-regional powers.”

“Iran is not a warmonger, but we will never surrender. We are brothers with our neighbors and reject US efforts to stir division to boost its arms sales,” he said.