The Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, during a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty, on June 2, 2025, in Cairo. (Credit: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters.)
Iran on Monday ruled out any agreement with Washington to regulate its nuclear program if the goal is to "deprive it of its peaceful" enrichment activities, and urged the United States to provide "guarantees" on lifting sanctions that are strangling its economy.
Before a tripartite meeting in Cairo with the foreign ministers of Egypt and Iran, Badr Abelatty and Abbas Araghchi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, called on Iran to "more transparency" about its nuclear activities.
On Saturday, Iran said it had received "elements" of a U.S. proposal for a new agreement on its nuclear program following five rounds of negotiations under Oman’s mediation.
"If the goal of the negotiations is to ensure that Iran is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, then an agreement seems possible to me," Araghchi said in the Egyptian capital before the tripartite meeting. But if "the goal is to deprive Iran of its peaceful activities, then there will certainly be no agreement," he added.
Regarding a potential agreement, "we want guarantees that the sanctions will indeed be lifted," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei, noting that "so far, the American side has not wanted to clarify this issue."
Described as a series of bullet points rather than a full draft agreement by the New York Times, the proposal reportedly calls on Iran to stop all uranium enrichment and advocates for the creation of a regional group to produce nuclear energy.
Neither Iran nor the United States has confirmed the content of the proposal.
The U.S. proposal to Iran is "acceptable" and in Tehran’s "best interest," said the White House, as cited by American media on Saturday.
Western countries, led by the United States and Israel, Iran’s sworn enemy and considered by experts as the only nuclear power in the Middle East, suspect Tehran of wanting to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran denies having such military ambitions but insists on its right to civilian nuclear power, including for energy, under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which it is a signatory.
"Nothing to Hide"
After the disclosure of an IAEA report on Saturday showing that Iran has stepped up its production of 60% enriched uranium —close to the 90% needed for atomic weapons — Araghchi also asserted in the Egyptian capital that his country has "nothing to hide" about its "peaceful nuclear program."
"More transparency is needed — it's very, very clear — in Iran, and nothing will bring us that confidence [apart from] complete explanations of a number of activities," Grossi had just stated.
He defended his agency’s "impartial" report, which Iran rejected, calling the conclusions "political" and based on "unreliable and misleading" information.
The IAEA unveiled this report ahead of a Board of Governors meeting, an important quarterly meeting to be held from June 9-13 in Vienna [Austria], where Iran’s nuclear activities will be reviewed.
Denouncing "pressures exerted on the Agency by some European countries," Araghchi threatened them on Sunday with a "proportionate response from Iran" if they wanted to "further exploit this political report."
France, the United Kingdom, and Germany, along with Russia and China, are members of the agreement to regulate Iran’s nuclear program concluded with the Islamic Republic in 2015, from which the United States unilaterally withdrew three years later during Donald Trump’s first term.
Egypt’s foreign minister called on the press for a peaceful resolution to the Iranian nuclear issue, emphasizing that "the region has had enough of crises and security challenges." "We completely reject any escalation and any incitement to choose the military option" to avoid "harmful chaos from which no one will emerge unscathed," he added.
