Negotiators from the US and Iran have made “substantial progress” towards a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear programme, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi told CBS News on Friday, as President Trump considers strikes on Iran.
Albusaidi — who has mediated several rounds of US-Iran talks over the last month — told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan that a “peace deal is within our reach.”
He said Iran has agreed that it will “never, ever have … nuclear material that will create a bomb,” which he called a “big achievement.”
The country’s existing stockpiles of enriched uranium would be “blended to the lowest level possible” and “converted into fuel, and that fuel will be irreversible,” according to Albusaidi.
And Iran is willing to grant inspectors from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency “full access” to its nuclear sites in order to verify the terms of the deal, said Albusaidi.
“There would be zero accumulation, zero stockpiling, and full verification,” he said. Albusaidi said that if there is a fair and endurable deal in place, he is “quite confident” that even American inspectors will have access at some point in the process.
Asked if he believes enough progress has been made to avert US strikes on Iran, Albusaidi responded: “I hope so.” But he said “we need a little bit more time” to iron out some details.
Technical talks are scheduled for Monday in Vienna, and Albusaidi said he hopes that he can meet with US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner a few days afterward.
Trump struck a different tone earlier Friday, telling reporters he is “not happy” with the pace of negotiations and had not yet decided whether to authorize strikes.
“I’m not happy with the fact that they’re not willing to give us what we have to have,” he said. “I’m not thrilled with that. We’ll see what happens. We’re talking later.”
Trump said Friday afternoon that he wants Iran to stop enriching uranium altogether.
“They want to enrich a little bit. You don’t have to enrich when you have that much oil,” the president said during an event in Texas. “I say, no enrichment.”
