The Trump administration announced Saturday that it had presented Iran with an outline of a deal for limiting the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
The White House did not share the details of the plan, which Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt characterized as “acceptable” to the administration. A point of contention is whether the U.S. will demand total dismantlement in exchange for sanctions relief and other concessions, a prospect that Iran has characterized as a no-go. Iran confirmed that it had received the outline via an Omani intermediary.
Earlier Saturday, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear monitoring body, disclosed that Iran’s stores of near-bomb-grade uranium had increased by roughly 50 percent in the past three months in a report obtained by the New York Times. If the stores were enriched to weapons levels, they could provide warheads for about 10 bombs. In that report, Raphael Grossi, head of the IAEA, urged “a diplomatic resolution, under a very robust I.A.E.A. inspection system.” A second report detailed Iranian noncompliance with IAEA inspections.
