Biden administration allegedly was ready to negotiate nuclear agreement with Iran - report

The Biden administration was reportedly ready to sign a nuclear agreement with Iran, according to a Friday exclusive report by the Arabic-language Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al-Jarida.

The report claims that an informed source in the Iranian Supreme National Security Council confirmed that US officials a few days ago on Tuesday said the Biden administration is willing to negotiate a return to the nuclear agreement concluded in 2015 after introducing minor amendments to it.

The source explained to Al-Jarida that the communications between the two sides at the security level have been ongoing since October 7, and have recently become almost daily, and even several times during the same day to avoid a clash between them in the context of the Gaza war.

The two sides had decided to return to an unwritten agreement between them before Hamas attacked Israel, the report described, as a meeting at the political level between them was cut due to the death of President Ebrahim Raisi.

Iranian officials in the report say that Biden is ready to sign such an agreement before the end of his term in November, but he wants the Iranians to immediately return to implementing their commitments in the nuclear deal and come to agreements on a multitude of issues, such as what Tehran should do with the highly enriched uranium and the advanced centrifuges that were recently produced, in addition to Biden guaranteeing Iran regarding the possibility of Trump winning the presidency and not withdrawing from the agreement, as he did in 2018.

The source mentions an Iranian official insisting that the United States' return to the nuclear deal must have restrictions such as Washington not being able to benefit from the "trigger clause" that would enable the return of all international sanctions on the Islamic Republic, which is what Trump tried to do after withdrawing from the previous agreement concluded by former President Barack Obama.

IAEA supervision

Iranians have insisted that all centrifuges and enriched uranium must remain in storage under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in addition to demanding the inclusion of a new clause that allows Tehran to extract these materials and return to its current steps in the event that any member withdraws from the treaty, or Washington delays in implementing its pledges to lift economic sanctions against Iran.

A source told Al-Jarida that the Iranians are demanding security guarantees from the White House that these sensitive warehouses will not be targeted if their location is revealed to the IAEA.

The US also demanded a secondary agreement that included pledges to stop attacks by Tehran's allies on Israel and American forces in the region to which they received a negative reaction.

The source told the report that Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, were informed of the American offer, expecting a response after Iran's president-elect takes the constitutional oath at the end of next week.

This came days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that Iran was capable of producing material for a nuclear bomb "within a week or two," reiterating his country's commitment to preventing Tehran from doing so.