TEHRAN: Iran has to ‘walk away’ from uranium enrichment and long-range missile development and it should allow inspection of military facilities, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday as a round of nuclear talks was postponed.
Marco Rubio’s comments underscore the major remaining divisions in talks between the two countries to resolve the long-running dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme, with US President Donald Trump threatening to bomb Iran if there is no agreement.
“They have to walk away from sponsoring terrorists, they have to walk away from helping the Houthis (in Yemen), they have to walk away from building long-range missiles that have no purpose to exist other than having nuclear weapons, and they have to walk away from enrichment,” Rubio said in a Fox News interview.
Iran has repeatedly said it will not give up its missile programme or its uranium enrichment — a process used to make fuel for nuclear power plants but which can also yield material for an atomic warhead.
Analysts say Trump blindsided Netanyahu by opening talks with Iran at a time when Israel was looking for US support for attacks on Tehran’s nuclear plants
Rubio said Iran should import enriched uranium for its nuclear power programme rather than enriching it to any level.
“If you have the ability to enrich at 3.67 per cent it only takes a few weeks to get to 20pc, then 60pc and then the 80 and 90pc that you need for a weapon,” he said.
Rubio also said Iran would have to accept that Americans could be involved in any inspection regime and that inspectors would require access to all facilities, including military ones.
Netanyahu blindsided
US President Donald Trump blindsided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month with a gamble on immediately opening negotiations with Iran. Now, the success of those talks hinges on winning a handful of key concessions to stop Tehran developing a nuclear bomb, according to an analyst.
The pivot to negotiations with Iran last month was a shock for Netanyahu, who had flown to Washington seeking Trump’s backing for military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and learned less than 24 hours before a joint White House press event that US talks with Iran were starting within days, sources familiar with the matter said.
Tehran’s leadership remains deeply concerned that Netanyahu may launch a strike _ deal or no deal, a senior Iranian security official, said. However, in just three weeks, the US and Iran have held three rounds of talks aimed at preventing Tehran from building a nuclear weapon in return for sanctions relief.
An initial framework under discussion preserves the core of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) — scrapped by Trump in 2018 during his first term.
A deal may not look radically different from the former pact, which he called the worst in history, but would extend duration to 25 years, tighten verification, and expand sunset clauses that pause but don’t completely dismantle aspects of Iran’s nuclear programme.
Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2025
