In the lead-up to the U.S.’s strikes on Iran, the two countries engaged in multiple rounds of talks aimed at securing a nuclear deal.
Negotiators from the two sides held indirect talks in Oman in early February, followed by two rounds of negotiations in Switzerland later in the month. Iranian officials described the talks in generally positive terms, and Mr. Trump has said that Iran wants a deal. Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, who has helped mediate the talks, told CBS News after the third round of negotiations that a deal was “within our reach” and they just “need a little bit more time.”
But Mr. Trump told reporters shortly after the third round that he was “not happy” with the pace of progress, saying Iran was “not willing to give us what we have to have.”
The president said he wanted Iran to agree to “no enrichment.” But Iran has ruled out totally abandoning its uranium enrichment program, which it claims is for peaceful purposes.
Albusaidi cast the negotiations in more optimistic terms, saying Iran had agreed that it will “never, ever have … nuclear material that will create a bomb,” and that its existing stockpiles of enriched uranium would be “blended to the lowest level possible.” He said Iran also agreed to grant inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency “full access” to nuclear sites.
“There would be zero accumulation, zero stockpiling, and full verification,” he said.
The scope of any potential deal is also a question. The U.S.-Iran talks largely focused on the nuclear program, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for any deal with Iran to also include restrictions on ballistic missiles and funding of proxies in the region.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in late February that it was up to the president whether to pursue a nuclear-only deal with Iran, but he said that Iran’s “insistence on not discussing ballistic missiles is a big, big problem.”
Mr. Trump told Netanyahu in December that he would support Israeli strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program if a deal could not be reached, CBS News previously reported.