Iran Sends Nuclear Proposal via Qatar, Ties Discussion to 7 Demands
Key Facts
Iran sent the United States a nuclear proposal via Qatar, but discussion is conditional on Washington meeting 7 Iranian demands, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Nov. 5. The official said the United States is reviewing the proposal, without providing further details about its contents or when it might respond. The condition places the nuclear issue within a broader negotiating track, with Tehran tying discussion of it to the fulfillment of its demands before entering talks. In a separate account reported by The Times of Israel, Iranian negotiators are reviewing proposals to curb the nuclear program, put forward by Qatari mediators during rounds in Tehran and Doha over the week before the report. The proposals address Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium but stop short of fully dismantling the program, while a diplomat familiar with the matter said the offers include significant U.S. sanctions relief.
The two accounts point to overlapping tracks in Qatari mediation: a conditional Iranian proposal under review by Washington, and offers presented by mediators to Tehran addressing the nuclear program and sanctions. The senior Iranian official did not clarify whether Iran’s proposal was the same as the offers described by the two sources who spoke to The Times of Israel. The sources said Tehran has long insisted it would not discuss the nuclear issue, which lies at the heart of the ongoing conflict with the United States. The newspaper reported that the Qatari proposals were presented in multiple rounds of talks held in Tehran and Doha during the week before its report. According to the diplomat familiar with the matter, the offer includes significant U.S. sanctions relief in exchange for steps involving the program and the stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
Iranian security official Mohsen Rezaei said Tehran would not open the Strait of Hormuz or enter negotiations unless Washington implemented its 7 conditions. The demands reported by Reuters include lifting U.S. sanctions, releasing frozen Iranian assets and obtaining compensation for the war. Iran has also said that implementing a plan to reopen the strait and resume nuclear talks is conditional on its demands being met, including lifting the blockade on its ports, ending sanctions on oil sales and a ceasefire that includes Lebanon. On Nov. 2, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said contacts with the United States were continuing and the two sides were exchanging messages through mediators, but described the matter as complicated. The spokesman added that a return to nuclear talks would come only after Iran verified that its conditions had been met, and denied that transferring its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to another country had been raised in the talks.
The mediation effort, according to regional officials, seeks a framework under which Iran would stop attacking the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the United States lifting its blockade on Iranian ports. The two officials said additional rounds of talks were scheduled during the week of the Associated Press report. Regional sources cited by Axios said a Qatari draft proposes confidence-building steps over two days: lifting the naval blockade and releasing some frozen funds on the first day, then reopening Hormuz and resuming nuclear talks on the second day. U.S. Vice President JD Vance said President Donald Trump and he were optimistic about the chances of reaching a negotiated settlement. The efforts come as regional officials and a third person familiar with the matter said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for another wave of strikes on Iran after the U.S. midterm elections.
Washington’s options leave the negotiating track facing the possibility of continued escalation: Trump said he would soon decide whether to resume full-scale war. He said the options include launching new strikes, continuing economic pressure on Iran or reaching an agreement. In the oil market, Brent crude fell below $95 a barrel on Wednesday after the elections, reaching its lowest level in two months, according to the Associated Press. The agency said the move indicated that markets were not expecting major strikes, while Reuters linked oil’s roughly 4% decline on Monday, Nov. 2, to hopes that the latest round of mediation would lead to a diplomatic solution. But Iranian sources told Reuters a new U.S. attack was more likely than an agreement, while a Reuters poll of more than 100,000 voters found that about 6 in 10 viewed the U.S. decision to take military action against Iran as wrong.