Washington And Tehran Near ‘political Cease-fire’ In Nuclear Program Talks

Washington and Tehran are close to reaching an informal agreement on the Tehran regime’s nuclear program, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Three senior Israeli officials, an Iranian official and a U.S. official confirmed to the newspaper the broad outlines of the indirect negotiations, some of which took place in the Gulf state of Oman last month.

According to the report, some Iranian officials are calling the unwritten deal a “political cease-fire.” The agreement, which two Israeli officials called “imminent,” would limit Iran’s uranium enrichment to its current production level of 60%. Iran would also put a stop to attacks against American contractors in Syria and Iraq by the regime’s terrorist proxies.

Additionally, Iran would increase its cooperation with international nuclear inspectors and halt ballistic missile sales to Russia.

In exchange, the United States would agree not to ratchet up economic sanctions, to stop confiscating Iranian oil as occurred in April and to not seek punitive resolutions against Iran at the United Nations or at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Times also reported that Iran wants the United States to unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets in exchange for the release of three Iranian American prisoners, although Washington has not confirmed that this is part of the deal yet.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Jerusalem can accept the emerging “mini-agreement,” according to Hebrew media reports.

“This is not the agreement we know—this is an agreement which we will know how to deal with,” the prime minister reportedly said, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers opposed by Israel and abandoned by former U.S. president Donald Trump in 2018.

Produced in association with Jewish News Syndicate

Edited by Saba Fatima and Asad Ali