US & Iran Nuclear Deal Negotiations
By Muhammad Abdullah
Nuclear Deal between of United States with Iran becoming a great tension for western powers and creating a hype of war in Middle-east. In this article we will see about the current negotiations situation between US & Iran by touching Iranian Nuclear Program history for understanding everything in a well way.
History
Under Raza Shah Pahlavi regime Iran launched a series of nuclear program that relied on the assistance from US and Europe.
- First Nuclear Reactor
In 1967, the Tehran Nuclear Research Center (TNRC) established, run by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI). The TNRC was equipped by a 5-megawatt nuclear research reactor supplied by US, which was fueled by highly enriched uranium.
- NPT Membership
Iran became a member of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970. NPT was an agreement signed by several nuclear and non-nuclear powers in 1968 for stemming the spread of nuclear technology.
- Iran-Iraq War
The 1979 Iranian Revolution, halted this work for several years. Iran-Iraq War began in1980, in which Iraq consumed Iran’s resources and damaged existing nuclear infrastructure.
By the early 1990s, as Iran recovered from the war with Iraq, its nuclear program once again moving forward with the help from Russia, China, and Pakistan.
In 1995, Iran concluded a protocol of cooperation with Russia to complete the construction of the reactor at Bushehr and possibly supply uranium enrichment plant. Previously, the development of reactor at Bushehr is in the hands of a international company called ‘Siemens’ and after facing several attacks from Iraq this project was stopped.
During this period, Iran received uranium enrichment technology through black market by Pakistani Scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan (A.Q. Khan).
- Amad Plan
In the late 1990s, senior Iranian officials approved an plan called ‘Amad plan’ to build 5 nuclear weapons by 2004. The project proceeded in secret and was led by Mohsin fakhrizadeh, make considerable progress in just few years.
Under Amad Plan, Iran acquired several foreign weapons design and refined them to develop its own and studied how to integrate war head with a Shahab-3 missile. Shahab-3 is the longest range missile of Iran.
The main element that lacked Iran during this program was the weapons-grade uranium or plutonium to fuel the bombs.
In 2002, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, revealed the existence of two nuclear sites, a uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy-water enrichment facility at Arak.
Natanz Provide weapons-grade uranium and Arak provide weapons-grade plutonium.
Iran declared both to IAEA in 2003.
The Iranian leaders decided to formally halt Amad Plan in late 2003 after the revelations coupled with the US invasion of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs.
However it didn’t mean the end of Iran’s nuclear program. Iranian leaders divide it into two streams overt and covert. This work still led by Mohsin Fakhrizadeh.
- International pressure
In October 2003, Iran signed an agreement with three European countries to suspend its enrichment activities and ratify an additional protocol to its safeguard agreement.
In April 2006, Iran had announced that it had 3.6 level of enriched uranium.
After the two months of announcement, China, Russia, US, France, UK, and Germany provide another framework of agreement offering incentives if Iran suspended its enrichment program.
Almost concurrently, UN Secuity Council adopted a first resolution for legally binding exhortation for Iran to do so.
The Security Council passed a series of severe resolutions imposing international sanction on iran’s nuclear program.
In September 2009, US, French and British Presidents revealed the existence of a second covert uranium enrichment plant near Qom called Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP). This step open a new door of diplomatic efforts again Iran.
In 2010, Iran began enriching uranium to 20 percent purity, the UN Security Council adopted resolution and expanded sanctions against Iran.
The Stuxnet computer virus that was developed by US and Israel targeted Iran uranium enrichment infrastructure.
JCPOA
Iran and the P5+1 (Veto powers + Germany) resumed negotiations in October 2013 and reached to an agreement called ‘Joint Plan of Action’.
On 14 July 2015, Iran and P5+1 announced the broader agreement the ‘Joint Comprehension Plan of Action (JCPOA)’.
Iran’s important commitments included:
– Halting the percentage of uranium production to 20%.
– Allowing IAEA to monitoring its nuclear sites.
P5+1 important commitments included:
– Limited sanction on Iran, and agrees not to impose more sanctions while the agreement was in force.
– Unfroze approximately $4.2 Billion worth of Iranian funds held abroad.
After two years of implementation on May 8, 2019, President Donald Trump withdrew America from the JCPOA. Although other 5 countries are under the same agreement today.
According to Donald Trump “The Iran Deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the US has ever entered into.”
After Washington reimposed sanctions and took steps to curb Iran’s oil sales, Iran announced in 2019 that it would begin reducing its compliance with the deal.
In January 2020, Iran announced that it had abandoned all JCPOA limits on its uranium enrichment program.
On 27 November 2020, the so-called Father of the Iranian Nuclear Program, Mohsin Fakhrizadeh assassinated. After this assassination, Iran start moving faster than before.
Joe Biden became President of the US in January 2021, he had pledged to return the US to the deal.
By April, diplomats from Iran and P5+1 were meeting in Vienna to negotiate a restoration of the deal but it was not finalized. Because Iran continued to demand greater reassurance that the US would not withdrew from the deal a second time and the closure of an IAEA probe into uranium particles found at several undeclared sites across the country.
During this Iran continued to expand it nuclear program, and successfully reached uranium enrichment to 60 percent that will be used in nuclear weapons after some more enrichment.
2025 US-Iran Negotiations
In 7th March 2025, Donald Trump said during an interview with Fox “he wants to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran and sent a letter to its leadership this week”
After this a series of negotiations started aimed to reaching a nuclear peace agreement.
– The first round of this negotiations was held in Oman on April 12, 2025, led by US special envoy and Trump business partner Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi. The discussion were described as constructive.
– On April 19 2025, the second round take place in Rome (capital of Italy) with indirect discussion between Witkoff and Abbas.
– A week later, third round of negotiations started in Muscat, led by Michael Anton for US and by Majid Takh-Ravanchi from Iran to develop a framework for a possible nuclear agreement.
During the talks Russia started funding construction of a nuclear reactor in Iran.
Iranian Supreme Leader says “It had made excessive and outrage demand on uranium enrichment . We don’t think it will lead to any outcome. We don’t know what will happen”
Trump has warned Iran that it could face US and Israeli military action if the talks are not successful.
Before the scheduled talks this week, Iranian Chief Negotiator rejected the claim of his US counterpart that Iran will need to pledge to stop its nuclear activities.
Khamenei addressed the negotiations with US at a ceremony honouring late president Ebrahim Raisi and says “they will not allow Iran to enrich is a big mistake. No-one waits for their permission”
US envoy Witkoff told ABC news in an interview on Sunday “We cannot allow even 1 percent of an enrichment capability”
In reply Abbas responded “Unrealistic expectations stop negotiations, enrichment in Iran is not something that can be stopped”.
In February, IAEA warned that Iran had 275kg of enriched uranium to 60 percent purity. That would be enough if enriched more to 90 percent for six nuclear bombs.