The American administration is preparing for an agreement with Iran – and is preparing a team

President Trump’s emissaries, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, traveled yesterday (Thursday) to the National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for consultations with a new team of technical experts who may play a role in the nuclear negotiations with Iran, according to several sources briefed on the details.

• The White House is trying to reach a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Iran that will end the war and open in-depth negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program. The Trump administration wants U.S. government nuclear experts ready to go to work in case those talks do get underway.
• The US and Iran still disagree on some details of the memorandum of understanding, according to senior American and regional sources involved in the mediation.
• The sources described the negotiations as being on the last line, but it is still unclear whether an agreement will be reached in the end.
• “This meeting in Oak Ridge does not mean that there will necessarily be an agreement, but it is a sign that the negotiations are at a very serious stage and that there is a good chance of completing it, and we want to be ready,” said an American official.

• On Thursday, Witkoff made an unscheduled trip to East Tennessee. Two senior US officials later confirmed that he and Kushner had visited the Department of Energy’s facilities in Oak Ridge.
• Some of the United States’ top experts in uranium processing and centrifuge technology work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex. In the past, nuclear materials and equipment—including from Kazakhstan and Libya—have been transferred to this lab.
• The White House declined to comment. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) did not comment.
• The two American officials said that a team of about 100 experts was recently established to participate in the nuclear negotiations if an initial agreement with Iran is reached. President Trump’s emissaries arrived for a meeting with members of this team and to discuss preparations for the possible implementation of a nuclear agreement.

• Last week, Witkoff and Kushner agreed with their Iranian counterparts on the terms of a memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire by 60 days, reopen the Straits of Hormuz, allow Iran to sell oil, and launch talks on the elimination of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and limits on uranium enrichment in the future.
• Last Friday, Trump requested two amendments to the wording of the agreement, and the Iranians said they would also request changes of their own. The US is waiting for Iran’s official response, but the sources say that the gaps are relatively small.
• For example, Trump asked Tehran to agree that any final agreement would include a 60-day deadline for completing Iran’s enriched uranium dilution process, but the Iranians want the deadline to be 90 days, according to two sources briefed on the talks.
• There is also a dispute regarding the extent of the frozen Iranian funds to be released and the date of their release. A senior American official said that the US made it clear that the funds will only be released after a final agreement is reached and actual steps are taken to implement it. The Iranians want some of the funds to be released immediately.
• An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader told CNN that the talks are stuck around the issue of frozen funds and that “the ball is in Trump’s court.”

• If the negotiations move to the second stage, the team of experts meeting with Witkoff and Kushner will have to formulate a plan for the disposal of Iran’s nuclear material, for limiting its enrichment program and for establishing monitoring and verification mechanisms.
• The US officials said that some of the same experts who met with Witkoff and Kushner on Thursday participated several weeks ago in an operation to remove enriched uranium from Venezuela. The material, which came from a research reactor, was transported last month to South Carolina for processing.
• Some of the nuclear experts who attended the meeting also joined Kushner and Witkoff in Oman for the nuclear talks with Iran before the war.
• “These are the best nuclear experts in the US, who know how to carry out all the technical aspects that an agreement with Iran will require,” said an American senior official.

• Senior American officials claim that the White House is receiving positive signals from the Iranian negotiating team, but believe that there are internal differences of opinion in Tehran regarding the way forward – so it is still unclear whether an agreement will be reached in the coming days.