WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview released Wednesday that Iran must give up all nuclear enrichment if it wants to make a deal during talks with the Trump administration and head off the threat of armed conflict.
Iran insists its nuclear program is for civilian energy use and says it does not seek to make weapons-grade uranium to build atomic bombs.
“If Iran wants a civil nuclear program, they can have one just like many other countries can have one, and that is they import enriched material,” Rubio said in a podcast interview with journalist Bari Weiss.
But Iran has long refused to give up its ability to enrich uranium. President Donald Trump in his first term pulled the U.S. out of a Obama-era nuclear deal focused on monitoring to ensure Iran did not move toward weapons-grade enrichment.
In the first months of his second term, Trump opened talks that he says will get a tougher agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, with a second round of negotiations held Saturday and technical-level talks expected this weekend. Iran wants the easing of sanctions that have damaged its economy and is facing threatened Israeli or U.S. strikes aimed at disabling its nuclear program by force.