The US and Iran's Enrichment Standoff

June 9th, 2025

Dhruv Arun

US President Donald Trump asserted on Friday that Iran will not be allowed to enrich uranium, despite reports that the deal Washington has proposed would allow Tehran to do so at low levels for a temporary period. Trump told reporters, “They won’t be enriching. If they enrich, then we’re going to have to do it the other way,” hinting at a military strike against Iran’s nuclear sites if a deal does not pan out, while reiterating that a diplomatic agreement is his preferred option.

In the wake of this statement, following five rounds of negotiations, the US last week presented Iran with a proposal for a deal that would reportedly restrict the Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment without halting it entirely. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected the proposal on Wednesday. He said: “The rude and arrogant leaders of America repeatedly demand that we should not have a nuclear program. Who are you to decide whether Iran should have enrichment? They cannot do anything about this.”

According to the proposed terms, the deal would have allowed Iran to retain low levels of enrichment for civilian uses like nuclear medicine and commercial power if it agreed to shut down its heavily protected underground sites for a period of time. The agreement calls for the eventual creation of a regional consortium to handle uranium enrichment for civilian uses, a plan first studied more than a decade ago in negotiations that led to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Because he deemed it too weak, Trump withdrew the US from the deal during his first term as president.

Furthermore, the US sent a nuclear deal proposal to Iran on Saturday. This suggests the US could invest in Iran’s civilian nuclear power program and join a consortium that would oversee the enrichment of low-level uranium inside Iran for an unspecified amount of time. That potential consortium would be expected to include Middle Eastern nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Nevertheless, Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and that it will never seek to develop or acquire nuclear weapons. However, it has increasingly breached restrictions of the existing nuclear deal in retaliation for the sanctions. A report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said last week that it had now stockpiled more than 408kg (900lb) of uranium enriched to 60% purity, near weapons grade, which would be enough to make nine nuclear bombs.

In addition, Iran has amassed enough uranium enriched to 60%, a short step away from weapons grade, for nine bombs, and the IAEA reported last week that they carried out secret nuclear activities with material not declared to the UN’s IAEA nuclear watchdog at three locations that have long been under investigation.

More recently, the IAEA stated that Iran has nearly doubled its stocks of near-weapons-grade 60 percent enriched uranium in the past three months, now possessing enough to assemble 10 nuclear weapons if further refined. It also reported that Iran’s rate of enrichment equated to refining enough material to build one new nuclear weapon each month.

Despite these developments, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said uranium enrichment is an essential part of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, and we will not abandon it. “Uranium enrichment is the key to our nuclear program, and the enemies have focused on the enrichment.” “It would be useless for Iran to build nuclear power plants without having the ability to enrich uranium.”

In contrast, Trump said his administration and wrote on his Truth Social platform, "we will not allow any enrichment of uranium" by Iran.

Meanwhile, Iran’s chief negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, wrote on X: "Iran has paid dearly for these capabilities, and there is no scenario in which we will give up on the patriots who made our dream come true.” He added: “To reiterate: No enrichment, no deal. No nuclear weapons, we have a deal.”

As it stands, despite several rounds of talks between the two sides to thrash out a new nuclear deal, major sticking points remain, with Iran insisting on its right to nuclear enrichment. A senior Iranian official told CNN on Monday that the US proposal is “incoherent and disjointed, very unrealistic, and with excessive demands.”

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