Iran has proposed forming a regional uranium enrichment partnership with Saudi Arabia and the UAE to resolve US concerns about its nuclear project. According to a report, the effort aims to create a collaborative Middle Eastern nuclear framework while strengthening Tehran’s position that enrichment rights should be retained.
The proposed consortium would have shared control and oversight, with enrichment efforts limited to 3.67% purity, with the original provisions of the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The enrichment would take place in Iran’s facilities, but with the participation and monitoring of regional partners. Tehran sees this as a strategic concession, granting neighbouring countries access to nuclear technology and including them in Iran’s enrichment process.
It is unclear whether Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi brought up this notion during his three-hour meeting with US officials in Oman on Sunday. Following these meetings, Araghchi visited Dubai to meet with UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Notably, the UAE is not actively enriching uranium.
The consortium notion has circulated in Tehran since 2023, when former Iranian negotiator Seyed Hossein Mousavian and physicist Frank von Hippel advocated it in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
