Yonah Jeremy Bob
Jerusalem Post, June 4, 2025
“What All of these creative arrangements have in common is that they are focused on symbolic victories for both Trump and Khamenei without seriously getting into the essence of what most endangers Israel about Iran’s nuclear program.”
On April 12, the US and Iran held their first round of nuclear talks under the Trump administration and the first serious negotiations between Washington and Tehran since September 2023.
Since then, both US President Donald Trump and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have been desperately searching for a formula that would allow a deal both sides could live with.
Many issues have been resolved, but one key dispute that the sides are dancing around and inventing new terms and phrases to try to solve it is how to both allow and block low-level Iranian uranium enrichment.
Of course, allowing and blocking uranium enrichment are polar opposites, so the two, by definition, cannot coexist – or can they?
The first wild formula has the Islamic Republic giving up all uranium enrichment for one to three years – a symbolic period – followed by being allowed to enrich uranium at 3.67%, a low level, similar to the 2015 Obama administration’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal.
Next, the latest wacky formula being discussed is a consortium of Middle East nuclear cooperation among Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey, and possibly others, with the US managing the joint venture. ….SOURCE