World
US sets new Iran deal demands as Vance seeks 'meaningful' cut in enrichment
Vice President JD Vance says Iran must reduce highly enriched uranium to prove it will not build a nuclear weapon, while Tehran calls talks futile amid an eighth month of war.
United States Vice President JD Vance has outlined a sharper nuclear threshold for any agreement to end the US-Israel war on Iran, telling Reuters that Tehran must make a "meaningful" reduction in uranium enrichment capacity. The remark may signal a softer US line than earlier calls for Iran to abandon enrichment entirely - even as other Washington officials keep maximalist rhetoric.
Vance's enrichment test
"If you don't want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60 percent enriched fuel?" Vance said, framing high enrichment as a "very basic threshold issue." Enriching uranium prepares fuel for reactors or, at far higher levels near 90 percent, material usable in weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported Iranian enrichment to 60 percent, below weapons grade, and in a May 2025 assessment found no credible indications of a structured nuclear weapons programme.
Vance also said Washington was speaking with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, while acknowledging uncertainty about "how their country makes decisions."
Harder lines from Rubio and Trump
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Athens, reiterated that "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, simple, period, end of story," and accused Tehran of missing multiple openings for a deal. He claimed Iran had lost control of the Strait of Hormuz and that its economy was in "total and complete freefall" under sanctions. President Donald Trump has warned the war will end the "nice way or the not-so-nice way."
Iran's mixed messages
Pezeshkian said on Monday that negotiations with Washington were "futile," arguing that every approach to the table has been followed by attacks and that the US goal is to bring down the Islamic Republic. Araghchi, however, told ambassadors in Tehran that only talks "based on justice and fairness" could end the conflict - language that still leaves room for diplomacy.
Iran floated a late-September proposal at the UN General Assembly to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart talks after a ceasefire sequence that would lift the US naval blockade, oil sanctions, and frozen-asset freezes. Trump rejected that offer. Experts noted the plan compressed timelines from a June 17 memorandum of understanding that briefly eased fighting before collapsing.
What still blocks a deal
Lancaster University professor Simon Mabon said enrichment may not be Tehran's primary sticking point. Iranian negotiators, he argued, care more about sanctions relief, unfrozen assets, ending the naval blockade, and stopping regional fighting - including Israel's campaign in Lebanon. A limited-enrichment bargain would also invite comparisons with the 2015 JCPOA, which Trump exited in 2018.
Shipping through Hormuz remains unstable even as Gulf oil exports recovered significantly. India's external affairs ministry said 12 crew on a Panama-flagged tanker were injured by an unknown projectile in the strait on Tuesday. Maritime firm Kpler data showed Gulf oil flows, excluding Iran, above 81 percent of pre-war levels in September.
Why it matters
Eight months into the war, Vance's enrichment language may be a diplomatic off-ramp - or a public pressure tactic. Without parallel movement on sanctions, blockades, and regional ceasefires, analysts say nuclear wording alone is unlikely to close a deal before US midterms reshape Washington's incentives.