May 13, 2025
Iran has proposed the creation of a joint nuclear enrichment venture involving regional Arab countries and American investments as an alternative to Washington’s demand that it dismantle its nuclear program, according to four Iranian officials familiar with the plan. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, proposed the idea to an American special envoy, Steve Witkoff, when the two men held direct and indirect talks in Oman on Sunday, according to the four Iranian officials. They asked not to be named because they were discussing sensitive issues……
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former Iranian diplomat and member of its nuclear negotiating team from 2003-2005, originally wrote about the idea of a regional nuclear consortium in 2023 in an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Mr. Mousavian, now a scholar at Princeton, wrote it with a physicist at that university, Frank von Hippel.
In an interview, Mr. Mousavian said that if the proposal moves forward, it would address several of America’s concerns. It would remove the immediate threat of Iran’s nuclear program by reducing its enrichment capacity and stockpile. He said it would also address longer-term concerns about Iran reversing course, as it did a year after Mr. Trump exited the nuclear deal in 2018.
“If Trump announces a regional nuclear deal, it will be a big victory,” Mr. Mousavian said. “It removes the immediate and future threat from Iran and contains enrichment ambitions in the region and brings new deals for Americans.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/world/middleeast/iran-us-nuclear-talks.html