Iran Insists Uranium Enrichment Will Continue “With or Without” New Deal, Foreign Minister Says
Iran will press ahead with uranium enrichment regardless of the outcome of ongoing negotiations with the United States, Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi declared Sunday in a post on X, as per Fox News.
“Enrichment in Iran … will continue with or without a deal,” he wrote, stressing that mastery of the technology is a “hard-earned and home-grown scientific achievement.”
The statement follows four rounds of indirect talks in Muscat, Oman, led on the U.S. side by Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Washington recently handed Tehran a written proposal that the White House says could “forever ensure” Iran does not develop nuclear weapons, but Iranian officials have balked at any demand to halt enrichment entirely.
Former President Donald Trump, speaking last week in Abu Dhabi, warned Iranian leaders that time is running out to accept the offer, saying they must act quickly or “something bad is going to happen.”
Iran’s stance highlights a widening public-private gap in the talks, Reuters reported Monday, noting that Tehran views enrichment as a non-negotiable right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) raised alarms in March when Director-General Rafael Grossi confirmed that Iran’s stockpile of 60 percent-enriched uranium had grown to 275 kilograms—enough material that “once you’re at 60, you’re 90 percent of the way” to weapons-grade, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio warned.
