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Yesterday, Thursday, the United States and Iran denied a press report that they were close to reaching what was described as an interim nuclear agreement, under which Tehran would curtail its nuclear program in return for easing sanctions. The Middle East Eye website quoted two unnamed sources as saying that Iran and the United States had “reached an agreement on a temporary agreement” to refer it to the leaders of the two countries.
“The report is incorrect and misleading,” said a spokesman for the White House National Security Council. “Any reports of an interim agreement are false,” he added.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations also questioned the report, saying, “Our comment is similar to that of the White House.”
US and European officials have been searching for ways to constrain Tehran’s nuclear program since the collapse of indirect US-Iranian talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.
This agreement – aimed at preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon – required Tehran to accept restrictions on its nuclear program and more intensive inspections from the United Nations in return for ending the sanctions of the organization, the United States and the European Union. One possible solution is an interim deal under which Iran would accept fewer restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for more modest sanctions relief than in the 2015 deal.
And the “Middle East Eye” website quoted two unnamed sources as saying that Iran and the United States “reached an agreement on a temporary agreement” to refer it to the leaders of the two countries.
This report said that Iran would commit to stopping uranium enrichment to a purity of 60% or more, and would continue to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations in return for allowing it to export up to one million barrels of oil per day and obtaining its “income and other funds frozen abroad.”
Oil prices fell more than $3 a barrel following the Middle East Eye report, and then pared their losses after the White House denied them.
The site said that the talks were led by the US special envoy to Iran, Rob Malley, and the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeed Irani, in an apparent retreat from Tehran’s refusal to deal directly with US officials.
A US State Department spokesman declined to comment on any such talks, saying only that there are ways to transmit messages to Iran, but he did not elaborate on their content or how to transmit them.
Two Iranian officials told Reuters that progress had been made, but no agreement was imminent. A third mentioned that Mali and Irani had met at least 3 times in the past weeks, but he did not give details.
On the other hand, a senior Iranian official said, “There has been some progress and we have exchanged proposals and messages with the Americans… but there are still many details that we have to discuss.”
Former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 agreement that capped Iran’s enrichment of uranium at 3.67%. Trump has reimposed sanctions to block Iranian oil exports.
Tehran has since accumulated a stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% purity, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has found traces of enrichment of 83.7%, close to the 90% level that could be used in bombs.
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