The Trump administration has discussed possibly helping Iran access as much as $30 billion to build a civilian-energy-producing nuclear programme, easing sanctions, and freeing up billions of dollars in restricted Iranian funds – all part of an intensifying attempt to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table, four sources familiar with the matter said.
Key players from the US and the Middle East have talked with the Iranians behind the scenes even amid the flurry of military strikes in Iran and Israel over the past two weeks, the sources said.
Those discussions have continued this week after a ceasefire deal was struck, the sources said.
Trump administration officials emphasised that several proposals have been floated. They are preliminary and evolving with one consistent non-negotiable: zero Iranian enrichment of uranium, which Iran has consistently said it needs. But at least one preliminary draft proposal, described to CNN by two sources, includes several incentives for Iran.
Some details were hashed out in a secret, hours-long meeting between US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Gulf partners at the White House last Friday, the day before US military strikes against Iran, two sources familiar with the meeting told CNN.
Among the terms being discussed, which have not been previously reported, is an estimated $20-30bn investment in a new Iranian non-enrichment nuclear programme that would be used for civilian energy purposes, Trump administration officials and sources familiar with the proposal said. One official insisted that money would not come directly from the US.
“The US is willing to lead these talks” with Iran, the Trump administration official told CNN. “And someone is going to need to pay for the nuclear programme to be built, but we will not make that commitment.”
Other incentives include potentially removing some sanctions on Iran and allowing Tehran to access the $6bn currently sitting in foreign bank accounts that it is restricted from freely using, according to the draft.
Another idea floated last week that is currently being considered is to pay to replace the Fordow nuclear facility – which the US hit with bunker-buster bombs – with the non-enrichment programme, two sources familiar with the matter said. It was not immediately clear if Iran would be able to use the site itself, nor was it clear how seriously that proposal was being considered.
“There are a lot of ideas being thrown around by different people and a lot of them are trying to be creative,” one of the sources familiar with the discussions said.
“I think it is entirely uncertain what will happen here,” said a separate source familiar with the first five rounds of talks between the US and Iran that occurred before the Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme.
Witkoff told CNBC on Wednesday that the US is seeking a ‘comprehensive peace agreement’, and a Trump administration official emphasised that all of the proposals are designed to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“Now the issue and the conversation with Iran is going to be, how do we rebuild a better civil nuclear programme for you that is non-enrichable?” he told CNBC.
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