Nuclear Energy

Tokyo and Beijing are closing in on a deal to allow Japanese seafood exports to resume following 2023 ban.

China and Japan are closing in on a deal that would see the return of Japanese seafood imports to the Chinese market following a nearly two-year trade ban.

Tokyo said on Friday that the two sides are finalising details following a successful meeting in Beijing this week.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters that officials had “reached an agreement on the technical requirements necessary to resume exports of fishery products to China”.

“Exports to China will resume as soon as the re-registration process for export-related facilities is completed,” Hayashi said, hailing the pending deal as a “milestone.”

China banned Japanese seafood imports in August 2023 after Japan released more than 1 million metric tonnes of treated radioactive wastewater from the former Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The power plant was destroyed during Japan’s infamous 2011 earthquake and tsunami, when three of its six nuclear reactors collapsed.

While the safety of the wastewater release was backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the move was controversial with neighbours like China.

China’s General Administration of Customs said on Friday that exports will resume once the “necessary procedures” are completed after “substantial progress” was made during negotiations.

The deal lays out several new procedures for Japan, whose fish processing facilities will be required to register with China.

Exporters will also need to include certificates of inspection guaranteeing that seafood has been checked for radioactive material, according to Japanese officials.

Chinese restrictions will remain on agricultural and marine exports from 10 Japanese prefectures due to concerns dating back to the 2011 accident.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa said Tokyo would continue to push China to lift any remaining restrictions.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says the US president ‘wants peace’ but will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.

Washington, DC – United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem says she delivered a message from President Donald Trump to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the two countries should be aligned on how to approach Iran.

Noem, who concluded a visit to Israel on Monday, told Fox News that her talks with Netanyahu were “candid and direct”. Her comments come days after US and Iranian officials held their fifth round of nuclear talks in Rome.

“President Trump specifically sent me here to have a conversation with the prime minister about how those negotiations are going and how important it is that we stay united and let this process play out,” she said.

On Sunday, Trump suggested that the talks were progressing well.

“We’ve had some very, very good talks with Iran,” the US president told reporters. “And I don’t know if I’ll be telling you anything good or bad over the next two days, but I have a feeling I might be telling you something good.”

Last week, CNN reported, citing unidentified US officials, that Israel was preparing for strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, despite the US-led talks.

Iran has promised to respond forcefully to any Israeli attack, and accused Netanyahu of working to undermine US diplomacy.

Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi said last week that the Israeli prime minister is “desperate to dictate what the US can and cannot do”.

Israel has been sceptical about the nuclear negotiations, and Netanyahu has been claiming for years that Iran is on the cusp of acquiring a nuclear bomb. Israeli officials portray Iran – which backs regional groups engaged in armed struggle against Israel – as a major threat.

On Monday, Noem said that the US understands that Netanyahu does not trust Iran.

“The message to the American people is: We have a president that wants peace, but also a president that will not tolerate nuclear Iran capability in the future. They will not be able to get a nuclear weapon, and this president will not allow it,” she said.

“But he also wants this prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to be on the same page with him.”

A major sticking point in the talks has been whether Iran would be allowed to enrich its own uranium.

US officials have said they want Iran not just to scale back its nuclear programme, but also to completely stop enriching uranium – a position that Tehran has said is a nonstarter.

Enrichment is the process of altering the uranium atom to create nuclear fuel.

Iranian officials say enrichment for civilian purposes is a sovereign right that is not prohibited by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Tehran denies seeking a nuclear weapon, while Israel is widely believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal.

During his first term, in 2018, Trump nixed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which had seen Iran scale back its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions against its economy.

Since then, the US has been piling sanctions on Iran. Tehran has responded by escalating its nuclear programme.

On Monday, Iran ruled out temporarily suspending uranium enrichment to secure an interim deal with the US.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei stressed that Iran is not buying time with the talks.

“We have entered the course of talks seriously and purposefully with the intention of reaching a fair agreement. We have proved our seriousness,” Baqaei was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency.

With a battered economy and a restless population, Iran is as desperate as the United States to come together, Johns Hopkins University Professor Vali Nasr argues.

Nasr told host Steve Clemons that US President Donald Trump’s administration is eager to reach an arms control deal with Iran, and Iran is eager to grow economically. “Both of them have arrived, after 40 some years, at a juncture where they need to change the direction of their relationship,” Nasr said.

Join the conversation on Nasr’s latest book, Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History, which explains how Iran’s anti-Americanism “is not ideological or theological”.

A series of new executive orders seeks to fast-track approvals to grow the US’s nuclear energy sector, a lengthy process.

United States President Donald Trump has signed a series of new executive orders aimed at boosting nuclear energy production in the country, while rolling back regulations.

Friday’s orders, signed by Trump at an Oval Office event, called on the nation’s independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission to cut down on regulations and fast-track new licences for reactors and power plants.

One order requires the body to make decisions on new nuclear reactors within 18 months. That would severely pare down a process that can take more than a decade. Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump described the nuclear industry as “hot”.

“It’s a brilliant industry. You have to do it right,” he said, flanked by CEOs of nuclear companies, as well as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

Burgum told reporters that the president’s actions would “turn the clock back on over 50 years of overregulation” in the nuclear industry.

Trump’s orders also called for assessing staffing levels at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and directed the US Departments of Energy and Defense to work together to build nuclear plants on federal land.

Building more nuclear reactors, an official told reporters in advance of the signing, is aimed in part at addressing the increased energy needs created by artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

It was not immediately clear how much authority Trump and the executive branch could assert over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which Congress created as an independent agency in 1974.

Trump’s orders also called for growth in the domestic production and enrichment of uranium, the primary fuel used in nuclear power.

‘National energy emergency’

Trump has focused heavily on energy industry deregulation since taking office for a second term in January, but much of the emphasis has been directed at fossil fuels.

On January 20, the day he returned to the White House, Trump declared a “national energy emergency”.

As part of that order, he called on the heads of federal agencies to identify any emergency powers they could use to “facilitate the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources” on federal and non-federal land.

He further called high energy prices an “active threat” to US citizens and national security.

Nuclear energy has long been a thorny issue in the US, splitting those who seek alternatives to fossil fuels.

On one hand, the industry offers a means of producing energy with low levels of greenhouse gas emissions. But on the other hand, the production of nuclear energy creates waste that can remain radioactive for long periods of time, and requires special storage to ensure public safety.

Nuclear power also carries the risk of rare, but potentially cataclysmic, accidents.

For many, incidents like the Three Mile Island accident represent the possible dangers. In 1979, the nuclear generator on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania suffered a mechanical failure, releasing radioactive gases into the air and spurring a backlash against nuclear power.

Even with Trump’s regulatory rollback, many experts in the field believe it would take years for the US to scale up its nuclear infrastructure.

Washington and Tehran have taken a tough public stance before talks, with enrichment a key point of contention.

Iran and the United States are set to hold a fifth round of talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme amid uncompromising rhetoric on both sides.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff are due to meet in Rome on Friday.

The ongoing talks, mediated by Oman, seek a new deal in which Iran would be prevented from producing nuclear weapons while having international sanctions eased. However, little progress has been made so far, and both Washington and Tehran have taken a tough stance in public in recent days, particularly regarding Iran’s enrichment of uranium.

Witkoff has said Iran cannot be allowed to carry out any enrichment.

Tehran, which has raised its enrichment to about 60 percent, well above civilian needs but below the 90 percent needed for weaponisation, has rejected that “red line”.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the demand “excessive and outrageous,” warning that the ongoing talks are unlikely to yield results.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that Washington is working to reach an agreement that would allow Iran to have a civil nuclear energy program but not enrich uranium, while admitting that achieving such a deal “will not be easy”.

On Thursday, the State Department announced new sanctions on Iran’s construction sector.

“Figuring out the path to a deal is not rocket science,” Araghchi said on social media on Friday morning. “Zero nuclear weapons = we DO have a deal. Zero enrichment = we do NOT have a deal. Time to decide…”

A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran took aim at the new sanctions, calling the move “vicious, illegal, and inhumane”.

High stakes

The stakes are high for both sides. Trump wants to curtail Tehran’s potential to produce a nuclear weapon that could trigger a regional nuclear arms race.

Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are strictly civilian, but seeks to ease international sanctions that hamper its economy.

During his first term, in 2018, Trump nixed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a 2015 agreement that saw Iran scale back its nuclear programme in exchange for eased sanctions.

After his return to the White House for a second term in January, Trump renewed his “maximum pressure” programme against Iran, piling further economic pressure, for example, by choking the country’s oil exports, particularly to China.

Iran responded defiantly, promising to defend itself against any attack and escalating enrichment far beyond the 2015 pact’s limits.

Tensions began to ease in April as the two countries launched the talks mediated by Oman, but Tehran’s enrichment programme has become a major point of contention.

Should that see the talks fail, the cost could be high. Trump has repeatedly threatened military action if no deal is reached.

Israel, which opposes the US talks with its regional foe, has warned that it would never allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons. Following reports that Israel may be planning to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, Araghchi warned on Thursday that Washington will bear legal responsibility if Iran is attacked.

A fifth round of nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran will take place in Rome on Friday, Oman says.

Washington, DC – Officials from Iran and the United States will hold another round of talks in Rome on Friday, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi has said, despite the growing gap between the two countries over uranium enrichment.

Wednesday’s confirmation that the nuclear negotiations would continue comes after days of Washington and Tehran expressing irreconcilable positions on Iranian uranium enrichment.

US officials have said they want Iran not just to scale back its nuclear programme, but also to stop enriching uranium altogether — a position that Tehran has said is a nonstarter.

Enrichment is the process of altering the uranium atom to create nuclear fuel.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also said on Tuesday that his country does not need US permission to enrich uranium.

“Saying things like ‘We will not allow Iran to enrich uranium’ is nonsense,” he was quoted as saying by the Mehr News Agency.

The 5th round of Iran US talks will take place in Rome this Friday 23rd May.

— Badr Albusaidi – بدر البوسعيدي (@badralbusaidi) May 21, 2025

His statement was in response to the US’s lead negotiator, Steve Witkoff, dubbing uranium enrichment a “red line” and saying that Washington “cannot allow even 1 percent of an enrichment capability”.

Several Iranian and US officials have reiterated their respective countries’ positions.

Washington has said Iran can operate nuclear reactors for energy production by importing already enriched uranium, arguing that the domestic uranium production by Tehran risks potential weaponisation.

Iran, which denies seeking a nuclear weapon, says uranium enrichment for civilian purposes is its right as a sovereign nation.

Israel, the top US ally in the Middle East, is widely believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran with military action if the two countries do not reach a deal, stressing that he will not allow Tehran to obtain a nuclear weapon.

During his first term, in 2018, Trump nixed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which saw Iran scale back its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions against its economy.

Since then, the US has been piling sanctions on the Iranian economy.

After his return to the White House for a second term in January, Trump renewed his “maximum pressure” programme against Iran, largely through economic penalties. He has, for example, pledged to choke off the country’s oil exports, particularly to China.

Iran has been defiant in the face of Trump’s threats, promising to defend itself against any attack.

Tensions began to ease in April as the US and Iran began to hold talks mediated by Oman, but it is not clear how the two sides will bridge the disagreement over Tehran’s enrichment programme.

On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi suggested that the US position has been shifting, stressing that “there is no scenario” in which Iran will give up enrichment.

“Iran can only control what we Iranians do, and that is to avoid negotiating in public — particularly given the current dissonance we are seeing between what our U.S. interlocutors say in public and in private, and from one week to the other,” Araghchi wrote in a social media post.

Negotiations between Washington and Tehran looking shaky as Iran resists US negotiator Witkoff’s ‘red line’.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has derided demands from the United States that it halt nuclear enrichment as negotiations between the two countries hang in the balance.

“Saying things like ‘We will not allow Iran to enrich uranium’ is nonsense. No one [in Iran] is waiting for others’ permission,” said Khamenei in a speech reported by the country’s semi-official Mehr News Agency on Tuesday.

He added that he did not know whether talks would “bring results”.

Since mid-April, Washington and Tehran have held four rounds of Omani-mediated talks aimed at getting Iran to limit its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

However, repeated clashes between the pair have thrown the next round of negotiations, which the news agency Reuters said were expected to take place in Rome at the weekend, into doubt.

US President Donald Trump ditched the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed by Iran and world powers during his last term in office. Intent on striking a new deal since his return to power in January, he has revived his “maximum pressure” approach against Iran, warning last week that talks needed to “move quickly or something bad is going to happen”.

Tehran confirmed on Tuesday that it has received and is reviewing a US proposal, but Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi had said the previous day that talks would fail if Washington insisted that Tehran refrained from domestic enrichment of uranium, which the US says is a possible pathway to developing nuclear bombs.

Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead. It has repeatedly insisted its programme is for peaceful purposes and is “non-negotiable”.

However, US negotiator Steve Witkoff has dubbed the continuation of the programme a “red line”. On Sunday, he reiterated that the US “cannot allow even 1 percent of an enrichment capability”.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that a deal ensuring Iran would not have nuclear weapons was “within reach”.

However, he underlined, Iran would continue enriching uranium “with or without a deal”.

In addressing the talks regarding Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, our U.S. interlocutors are naturally free to publicly state whatever they deem fit to ward off Special Interest groups; malign actors which set the agendas of at least previous Administrations.

Iran can only…

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) May 18, 2025

The US president has repeatedly threatened to unleash air strikes targeting Iran’s programme if a deal isn’t reached.

United States President Donald Trump says that Iran has his administration’s proposal regarding its rapidly advancing nuclear programme as negotiations between the two countries continue.

Trump made the remarks on Friday on board Air Force One as he ended his trip to the United Arab Emirates. It is the first time he has acknowledged sending a proposal to Tehran after multiple rounds of negotiations between US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

“We’re in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace,” Trump told a journalist when asked about the proposal.

“We’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran. I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this,” he said.

“But most importantly, they know they have to move quickly, or something bad is going to happen.”

On Thursday, Araghchi spoke to journalists at the Tehran International Book Fair and said that Iran had not received any proposal from the US yet.

Araghchi also criticised what he called conflicting and inconsistent statements from the Trump administration, describing them as either a sign of disarray in Washington or a calculated negotiation strategy.

Witkoff at one point suggested that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67 percent, then later said that all Iranian enrichment must stop.

“We are hearing many contradictory statements from the United States – from Washington, from the president, and from the new administration,” Araghchi said.

“Sometimes we hear two or three different positions in a single day.”

Iranian and American officials have met in Oman and Rome in recent weeks for the negotiations mediated by Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, a trusted interlocutor between the two nations.

The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the US has imposed on the Islamic republic.

Trump has previously threatened to launch attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear programme if a deal isn’t reached.

Some Iranian officials have warned that Tehran could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.

Separately on Friday, Iranian officials also met officials from Britain, France and Germany in Istanbul to discuss their nuclear negotiations with Washington.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, who attended the talks in the Turkish city, said in a post on X: “We exchanged views and discussed the latest status of the indirect nuclear negotiations and the lifting of sanctions.”

Gharibabadi added that if necessary, Tehran would meet with the so-called E3 – the European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal, along with China, Russia and the United States – once again to continue discussions, after several meetings since last year.

Trump had effectively torpedoed the deal during his first term by unilaterally abandoning it in 2018 and reimposing sanctions on Iran’s banking sector and oil exports.

A year later, Iran responded by rolling back its own commitments under the deal, which provided relief from sanctions in return for UN-monitored restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities.

Taipei, Taiwan – As Taiwan prepares to shut down its last nuclear reactor, soaring energy demand driven by the island’s semiconductor industry is rekindling a heated debate about nuclear power.

Taiwan’s electricity needs are expected to rise by 12-13 percent by 2030, largely driven by the boom in artificial intelligence (AI), according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Environmental group Greenpeace has estimated that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, will by itself consume as much electricity as roughly one-quarter of the island’s some 23 million people by the same date.

The self-ruled island’s soaring appetite for power complicates Taipei’s pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, which is heavily dependent on raising renewable energy production to about 60-70 percent of the total from about 12 percent at present.

Nuclear power advocates argue that the energy source is the most feasible way for Taiwan to reach its competing industrial and environmental goals.

On Tuesday, Taiwan’s legislature passed an amendment to allow nuclear power plants to apply for licences to extend operations beyond the existing 40-year limit.

The opposition Kuomintang and Taiwan People’s Party passed the bill over the objections of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which came to power in 2016 on a pledge to achieve a “nuclear-free homeland”.

The legal change will not halt Sunday’s planned closure of the last operating reactor – the No 2 reactor at the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant – though it casts doubt over the island’s longstanding opposition to nuclear power.

The government said after the vote that it had no immediate plans for any future nuclear power projects, though Premier Cho Jung-tai indicated earlier that the government would not oppose the restoration of decommissioned reactors if the amendment passed.

Cho said Taipei was “open” to nuclear power provided safety was ensured and the public reached a consensus on the issue.

Any move to restart the local nuclear industry would, at a minimum, take years.

Taiwan began its civilian nuclear programme in the 1950s with the assistance of technology from the United States.

By 1990, state-owned power firm Taipower operated three plants with the capacity to generate more than one-third of the island’s electricity needs.

‘Renewable energy isn’t stable’

Angelica Oung, a member of the Clean Energy Transition Alliance who supports nuclear power, said Taiwan could generate about 10 percent of its energy requirements from nuclear plants when the DDP came to power nearly a decade ago.

“Energy emissions at the time were lower than now – isn’t that ridiculous?” Oung told Al Jazeera.

“At the time, it was reasonable to launch the anti-nuclear policy as the public was still recovering from the devastating Fukushima nuclear disaster … but now even Japan has now decided to return to nuclear,” Oung said, referring to Tokyo’s plans to generate 20 percent of its power from the energy source by 2040.

“That’s because renewables simply don’t work.”

“The supply of renewable energy isn’t stable … solar energy, for example, needs the use of batteries,” Oung added.

While the 2011 Fukushima disaster helped solidify opposition to nuclear power, Taiwan’s history of anti-nuclear activism stretches back decades earlier.

The DPP was founded just months after the 1986 Chornobyl disaster and included an anti-nuclear clause in its charter.

The following year, the Indigenous Tao people launched protests against Taipower’s policy of dumping nuclear waste on Orchid Island, helping cement the civil anti-nuclear movement.

Nuclear energy attracted further negative scrutiny in the 1990s, when it emerged that about 10,000 people had been exposed to low levels of radiation due to the use of radioactive scrap metals in building materials.

In 2000, Taipei halted construction of a planned fourth nuclear plant amid protests by environmental groups.

A 2021 referendum proposal to restart work on the mothballed project was defeated 52.84 percent to 47.16 percent.

Chia-wei Chao, research director of the Taiwan Climate Action Network, said nuclear power is not the answer to Taiwan’s energy needs.

“Developing nuclear energy in Taiwan often means cutting the budget for boosting renewables, as opposed to other countries,” Chao told Al Jazeera.

Chao said Taiwan’s nuclear plants were built without taking into account the risk of earthquakes and tsunamis, and that establishing a local industry that meets modern standards would be costly and difficult.

“Extension of the current plants and reactors means having to upgrade the infrastructure to meet more updated safety standards and factoring in quake risks. This costs a lot, so nuclear energy doesn’t translate into cheaper electricity,” he said.

Lena Chang, a climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia, said that reviving nuclear energy would not only be costly, but potentially dangerous, too.

“We, Greenpeace, firmly [oppose] restarting nuclear plants or expanding the use of nuclear because nuclear poses an unresolved safety, waste and environmental risk, particularly in Taiwan – a small island that can’t afford a nuclear and environmental disaster,” Chang told Al Jazeera.

Chang said the chip industry should have to contribute to the cost of switching to renewable energy sources.

“They should be responsible for meeting their own green energy demand, instead of leaving all the work to Taipower, as any of the money to build more energy plants and storage facilities ultimately comes from people’s tax money,” she said.

Chao agreed, saying chip giants such as TSMC should lead the push to go green.

“The chipmaking industry is here to stay … Sure, energy supply will be tight in the next three years, but it’s still enough,” he said.

Iranian foreign minister says civilian enrichment cannot be subjected to any deal as Tehran and Washington set to hold talks.

Tehran, Iran – Iran has emphasised its right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes as an Iranian delegation led by the foreign minister reached the Omani capital, Muscat, for a fourth round of indirect nuclear talks with the United States.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state media on Sunday that the Iranian nation has a legal right to civilian enrichment that cannot be subjected to any deal.

The landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal, from which US President Donald Trump withdrew during his first term, allowed Iran to pursue its civilian nuclear activity but put restrictions on enrichment to prevent Tehran from making a nuclear bomb.

“Enrichment is one of the achievements and honours of the Iranian nation. We have paid a heavy price for enrichment. The blood of our nuclear scientists has been spilled for this achievement,” he said in reference to scientists assassinated by Israel over the years.

But Araghchi said Tehran remains committed to providing verifiable assurances that it will not be able to develop a nuclear bomb – which has been Trump’s main demand.

Araghchi visited Saudi Arabia and Qatar and met with senior officials to coordinate in the run-up to the latest nuclear talks.

In the Omani capital on Sunday, Iran’s top diplomat was accompanied by his deputies and other members of the team tasked with technical talks that Iran still emphasises are held “indirectly” through Omani mediation.

Tehran has also repeatedly expressed concern over “contradictory” remarks made to the media by US negotiators, who are led by Trump’s longtime friend and envoy Steve Witkoff.

In the lead-up to the Muscat talks on Sunday, Witkoff again called for the complete “dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear programme, including key sites in Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top officials have suggested Iran must import enriched uranium.

The fourth round of the talks was scheduled for early May but had to be postponed with Oman citing “logistical reasons”.

The delay came after the US did not confirm its participation and amid a string of major fires in several Iranian cities, including one caused by an explosion in the port city of Bandar Abbas that killed dozens of people and injured more than 1,200.

Trump sacked National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, an Iran hawk, this month after Waltz reportedly coordinated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and advocated for war with Iran.

Trump, his team and Israel have repeatedly threatened to launch devastating military strikes on Iran and its infrastructure if the talks fail to produce results soon.

Meanwhile, the US has continued to pile sanctions on Iran with the Treasury Department blacklisting a Chinese chemical group and three port terminal operators on Thursday in an attempt to target Iranian oil exports.

Amid its “maximum pressure” push against Iran, the US has also promised to drive Iranian oil exports to “zero” as Tehran has continued to ship its oil – mainly to China – despite the sanctions.

Trump started the sanctions campaign in 2018 after unilaterally reneging on the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that put verifiable and stringent limits on Iran’s nuclear capabilities in exchange for lifting sanctions on the country.

The accord restricted Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 3.67 percent using first-generation centrifuges at limited sites, but it had time limits and sunset clauses that Trump claimed made it the “worst deal ever”.

Iran is currently enriching up to 60 percent, which is close to the more than 90 percent required to make a nuclear bomb, but the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tehran has made no effort to produce a weapon.

United States President Donald Trump plans to tout trillions of dollars of Arab investments in the US as a major achievement, but other issues are at stake, says University of Maryland professor Shibley Telhami.

Israel is threatening to further destroy the Gaza Strip unless progress is made in its ceasefire talks with Hamas. Meanwhile, Israel has refused to allow any food to enter Gaza – home to more than 2 million Palestinians – for more than two months.

And despite Israeli objections, Trump may soon be able to reach a deal with Iran on its nuclear program.