President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States has offered Iran a new proposal for a nuclear agreement. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he departed Abu Dhabi, Trump said, “Yeah, they have a proposal, but more importantly, they know they have to move quickly or something bad, something bad is going to happen.”
According to reports cited by Axios, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff delivered the proposal earlier this week to Iranian representatives.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi reportedly brought the proposal back to Tehran for consultation with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Masoud Pezeshkian, and other senior officials. However, public statements from Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi appeared to contradict reports and Trump’s comments.
In a post on social media, Araghchi said Iran “has not received a written proposal from the United States—directly or indirectly.” He added, “The messaging we—and the world—continue to receive is confusing and contradictory.”
Araghchi emphasized that any deal must respect Iran’s right to enrich uranium and require the termination of U.S. sanctions. “Mark my words: there is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to enrichment for peaceful purposes,” Araghchi wrote. “We ALWAYS welcome dialogue based on mutual respect and ALWAYS reject any diktat.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, addressing the nuclear issue in a televised interview Thursday, warned that Iran is nearing the threshold of nuclear weapons capability. “Once you’re at 60, you’re 90% of the way there,” Rubio said on Fox News’ Hannity. “They are at the threshold. If they decided to do so, they could very quickly turn it into 90 and weaponize it. That’s the urgency here.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported in March that Iran’s stockpile of 60% enriched uranium had increased from 182 kg to 275 kg (401 pounds to 606 pounds).
Speaking earlier in the week at the Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Riyadh, Trump outlined specific conditions for a potential agreement. “I want to make a deal with Iran. I want to do something if it’s possible, but for that to happen, it must stop sponsoring terror, halt its bloody proxy wars, and permanently and verifiably cease its pursuit of nuclear weapons,” he said.
The president added that Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon,” a point he reiterated during a stop in Doha, where he described the diplomatic path as the preferable option. “There are two steps,” Trump said. “A very, very nice step, and there’s a violent step, the violence like people haven’t seen before. I hope we’re not going to have to do this.”
