Iran’s stockpile of 60% enriched uranium — 40 kilograms of material sitting just below the threshold for weapons use — dominated the second round of indirect nuclear talks in Geneva on Tuesday, with Iranian officials offering to dilute the material as part of a broader package aimed at securing a deal with the United States. The session ended with agreement on guiding principles and a commitment to further talks.
Foreign Minister Araghchi, who led the Iranian delegation, described the atmosphere as more constructive than the first meeting earlier this month and confirmed that both sides would exchange draft texts ahead of a third round expected in about two weeks. The talks, brokered by Oman, lasted three and a half hours and ranged across the full technical landscape of Iran’s nuclear programme.
The 60% enrichment level has long alarmed Western governments and the IAEA because it places Iran within relatively easy technical reach of the 90% purity needed for nuclear weapons. Iran has maintained that the material is intended for civilian research reactor fuel, but critics note that the quantities far exceed what any civilian programme would require.
Iran’s offer to downblend this material — reducing its purity to levels appropriate for civilian energy use — was presented as a significant confidence-building gesture. Combined with proposals for expanded IAEA access and a possible temporary enrichment suspension, Iran framed its package as a serious and substantive contribution to finding a negotiated solution.
The US remained unconvinced that partial measures were sufficient, continuing to press for a complete halt to domestic enrichment and comprehensive verification. The two sides agreed to exchange written positions before meeting again, a procedural step that suggests both are treating the talks as a genuine negotiating process rather than a diplomatic performance.