Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, has dampened optimism about a new nuclear agreement with the US, accusing Washington of making “excessive and outrageous” demands on uranium enrichment.
The BBC reports that while US President Donald Trump said last week that Iran had “sort of” agreed to the terms of a deal following four rounds of talks mediated by Oman since 12 April, Khamenei has said, “We don’t think it will lead to any outcome. We don’t know what will happen.”
Ahead of another round of talks due this weekend, Iran’s chief negotiator rejected his US counterpart’s assertion that it would have to commit to stop producing enriched uranium, which can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear weapons.
Trump, who pulled the US out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers during his first term in office, has warned Iran that it could face US and Israeli military action if the talks are not successful.
[Image: By Khamenei.ir, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=141074394]