The sudden diplomatic breakthrough aimed at ending the military standoff in the Persian Gulf has hit a critical roadblock after a senior Iranian official explicitly rejected claims that Tehran has agreed to surrender its domestic stockpiles of highly enriched uranium.
The pushback, according to Reuters, introduces a sharp narrative divide between Washington and Tehran just hours before both administrations are scheduled to formally announce a finalized Memorandum of Understanding to halt the six-week-old war.
Nuclear programs omitted from the truce
According to the high-ranking Iranian government official, the preliminary text hammered out during frantic weekend backchannel negotiations does not encompass any structural restrictions or removal mandates concerning the regime’s nuclear enrichment capabilities. Tehran asserts that the current diplomatic instrument functions strictly as a localized security framework to separate combat forces and restore maritime trade, rather than a comprehensive, permanent non-proliferation treaty.
“The nuclear issue will be considered in negotiations on a final agreement and therefore is not part of the current arrangement,” the Iranian official stated. “No agreement was reached regarding the removal of Iran’s highly enriched uranium from the country.”
This operational boundary was corroborated by Iran’s state-aligned Tasnim news agency, which reported that significant friction points still litter the home stretch of the text. Iranian negotiators alleged that while a baseline framework is close to being realized, the final stabilization of the memorandum is being hindered by complex, last-minute structural obstacles introduced by American legal advisers.
Contradicting the White House blueprint
The stern pushback from Tehran stands in direct opposition to the sweeping parameters outlined by US President Donald Trump late Saturday evening.
In an expansive address published to Truth Social from the Oval Office, Trump had claimed that a massive multi-lateral deal had been successfully negotiated following back-to-head phone conferences with a broad coalition of Middle Eastern leaders, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
White House officials had previously indicated that Trump would only put his signature on a memorandum that explicitly neutralizes Iran’s current breakout capacity.
Initial American briefings suggested that Tehran had succumbed to a five-point list of prerequisites presented by Washington, which allegedly mandated that Iran condense its enrichment operations down to a single monitored site and physically transfer its entire existing cache of highly enriched fissile material to the custody of the United States or an independent third party.
Faced with a highly volatile domestic political landscape driven by soaring global oil prices and a direct naval blockade that has crippled regional energy exports since mid-April, Trump had openly threatened to deploy a devastating Pentagon air assault to “wipe them off the face of the earth” if nuclear concessions were not secured.
The fate of the Strait of Hormuz
Despite the friction over the nuclear cache, both sides appear to remain aligned on the primary economic and maritime components of the package, which center heavily on de-escalating the global energy crisis.
The core trade-off under review involves the United States and its regional allies lifting the strict maritime embargo on Iranian shipping ports and granting immediate waivers on international oil sanctions. In return, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has agreed to dismantle its military choke points across the Strait of Hormuz.