Iran is now offering to roll back its uranium enrichment levels from 60% to 20%, but only if Britain and the European Union drop their plan to trigger United Nations snapback sanctions.
This was reported by The Telegraph, citing senior Iranian officials close to the ongoing discussions. Tehran wants to avoid another round of military action from Israel or the United States and hold off a new wave of economic pressure that could collapse its already fragile economy.
Ali Larijani, the 68-year-old security chief just reappointed by President Masoud Pezeshkian, is leading the charge to convince Iran’s top power players that it’s time to de-escalate. The proposed rollback to 20% enrichment is still way above the 3.67% limit that was set under the 2015 nuclear agreement.
But it’s lower than where things stand now, and it’s designed to keep the door open for talks, not slam it shut with another war. Larijani is walking into the same political fire he dealt with in 2005, when the International Atomic Energy Agency referred Iran’s file to the UN just months after he took this exact same job.
Larijani faces IRGC resistance amid snapback deadline
The plan isn’t guaranteed. Larijani wants the rollback done before the snapback clause expires in October 2025. Once it does, France, the UK, and Germany won’t be able to act without a full vote at the UN. That means Russia or China could step in and block sanctions.
Right now, though, they can unilaterally accuse Iran of violating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and restart the sanctions that were lifted ten years ago.
A senior official close to the talks told The Telegraph, “Larijani is trying to convince the system to reduce the level of enrichment to avoid another war.” He added, “He’s concerned that without lowering it or meeting some of the West’s demands, the system will face another major challenge.”
But Larijani is running into major resistance from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which still wants to keep enrichment high and sees any rollback as giving in to the West. Still, leadership under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appears to be leaning toward cooperation, at least temporarily.
Pezeshkian brought Larijani back into the same national security post he held between 2005 and 2007, hoping he can negotiate with Western powers again. But even with Larijani’s return, the same three European countries are now threatening to return Iran’s nuclear file to the UN Security Council if progress stalls.
The entire process feels like a tightrope walk, and Larijani is being pulled from both sides.
Khamenei stays quiet as pressure builds and military drills begin
The political split inside Iran is obvious. Reformists are pushing to suspend enrichment completely in exchange for lifting U.S. sanctions and changing domestic policies. Hardliners are calling them traitors. They’ve accused the reformists of siding with enemies of the Islamic Republic.
One of the loudest criticisms came from inside Iran’s security structure. Aziz Ghazanfari, the IRGC’s deputy political chief, wrote on the Bassirat website that “foreign policy is not a place to state every reality” and warned that “the dangers of careless remarks by senior officials fall first on their own governments.”
Khamenei has made only two appearances since Israeli forces hit Iranian targets in June, and now hasn’t been seen in weeks, which is only fueling more anxiety about what direction the leadership is leaning toward, and whether they’ll support Larijani or give in to the IRGC’s hardline position.
At the same time, Iran’s defense ministry has launched a new round of ballistic missile drills. The nuclear deal in 2015 gave Iran access to global trade again after years of isolation. That came with a promise to cap enrichment levels far below what’s needed for weapons. Now, Iran’s pushing back toward those red lines, and Europe is out of patience.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/iran-enrichment-levels-snapback-sanctions/