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President Donald Trump’s administration has discussed a plan to lure Iran back to the negotiating table after conducting strikes on its nuclear facilities last weekend, CNN reported.
Two sources told CNN administration officials discussed plans for negotiations with Iran. But in exchange, the administration wants zero enrichment of its uranium.
Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and partners in the Gulf on the Friday before Operation Midnight Hammer, wherein the administration conducted strikes at the nuclear facilities in Fordow, Ishfahan and Natanz.
Among the potential offers, the administration has discussed investing $20-30 billion in a non-enrichment nuclear program for Iran for energy purposes, CNN reported. The United States would not pay for the program, but rather Arab nations would contribute the money.
“The US is willing to lead these talks,” one Trump administration official told CNN. “And someone is going to need to pay for the nuclear program to be built, but we will not make that commitment.”
The administration has also allowing Iran to access $6 billion sitting in foreign bank accounts that it current cannot access, as well as lifting some foreign sanctions.
Two sources said that the Trump administration has also suggested replacing the Fordow facility that US forces hit on Saturday. But it’s not clear if Iran couild use the site.
“There are a lot of ideas being thrown around by different people and a lot of them are trying to be creative,” one source told CNN. But another source familiar with the first five rounds of discussions between the United States and Iran said “I think it is entirely uncertain what will happen here.”
Trump said on Wednesday that the United States and Iran would sit down next week. But the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said he did not know any talks would take place.
Despite this, Trump said “I don’t care if I have an agreement or not” when it comes to Iran’s nuclear program.
The Trump administration has hoped that the strikes that it conducted could force Iran to accept US conditions and stop taking steps toward obtaining a nuclear weapon.
But the Iranian parliament voted on Wednesday to fast-track a proposal to effectively stop cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear oversight agency.
The United States had initially planned to conduct a sixth round of negotiations before Israel struck Iran. Ahead of the Trump administration conducting its strikes on Saturday, it notified Iran through intermediaries that the strikes would be limited to notify the regime that strikes would be limited and that the United States would not accept any uranium enrichment.
At the same time, the president has been cagey about the potential for a deal.
“I could get a statement that they’re not going to go nuclear, we’re probably going to ask for that,” Trump said during the NATO summit this week.
