The Iranians have taken the nuclear issue off the table in their latest proposals for negotiations with the United States. “These negotiations have nothing to do with the nuclear issue,” Tasnim cited its correspondent as saying from Islamabad on April 26 during Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s brief stopover on his way to Russia. In addition to talks on bilateral relations, Araghchi’s important agenda was to convey Iran’s conditions for ending the war to the Pakistani side, which is acting as a mediator. Imposing a new legal regime on the Strait of Hormuz, receiving compensation, ensuring no further military aggression against Iran by the warmongers, and termination of the naval blockade against the country are among the issues thatAraghchi raised.
Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, writing in Axios last night, partially confirms the Tasnim report, but claims the Iranian leadership is divided over what to do about Iran’s enriched uranium. Iran, he says, has given the U.S. “a new proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war, with nuclear negotiations postponed for a later stage, according to a U.S. official and two sources with knowledge. Ravid claims that diplomacy is in a stalemate, and the Iranian leadership is divided about what nuclear concessions should be on the table. The Iranian proposal would bypass that issue en route to a faster deal.”
But, Ravid adds, “lifting the blockade and ending the war would remove President Trump’s leverage in any future talks to remove Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and convince Tehran to suspend enrichment—two primary war objectives for Trump.”
