US Rejects Any Uranium Enrichment By Iran, Trump Clarifies 

A lot of contradictory information and signaling has come out of Washington on the Iran nuclear issue of late. This is especially true already this week, amid reports in Axios and others that the White House is ready to allow the Iranians limited uranium nuclear enrichment. 

“The nuclear deal proposal the U.S. gave Iran on Saturday would allow limited low-level uranium enrichment on Iranian soil for a to-be-determined period of time, Axios has learned, contradicting public statements from top officials,” a Monday report said.

But it was only hours after that Trump seemed to issue a firm denial of the contents of the report. Here’s what he issued on all caps later in the day Monday on Truth Social…

Possibly, the contradictory statements (between Trump, Rubio, and Witkoff) are a negotiating tactic. However, what’s become clear is a softening of ‘maximum pressure’ while Iran nuclear talks proceed.

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that White House issued a directive last week telling federal agencies to halt the imposition of any new sanctions on Iran.

“The new policy went out to top officials at the National Security Council and Treasury Department, and then to the State Department,” WSJ said. “Relevant officials working on the Middle East were looped in, but the directive had to spread much further. Iran sanctions intersect with U.S. policy toward China, where buyers take in more than 90% of Iran’s oil exports, as well as Japan, Europe, India and Southeast Asia.”

Iran is still mulling a response to a US proposal for a deal which was delivered via Omani mediators. The basic framework is said to be Iran must abandon any all efforts for highly enriched uranium in return for sanctions relief. But the Iranians have also been demanding answers to the question of when and how these layers of sanctions will be removed by Washington.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has meanwhile said according to Tasnim News Agency: ”The proposal for a regional consortium for uranium enrichment is not a new idea… If some parties are proposing such a process, we welcome it and have no problem with participation either. But we emphasize that such an initiative cannot replace enrichment inside Iran.”

Tehran is expected to reject taking enrichment down to zero, considering it sees as a matter of national sovereignty, but may agree to impose limits on enrichment and a monitoring regimen, which would in effect take things back to the original Obama-era JCPOA nucelar deal which Trump pulled out of in 2018.