security

Mike Waltz was dropped as US national security adviser.

It’s the first big shift in personnel of Donald Trump’s second term.

Weeks ago, he added a journalist to a chat group of senior officials sharing secret information.

Is that why he is being moved – or is there more going on?

Presenter:

Nick Clark

Guests:

John Haltiwanger, reporter at Foreign Policy Magazine covering US national security.

Amy Koch, Republican political strategist.

Matthew Bryza, former US diplomat and National Security Council official at the White House.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been thrown into two top national security jobs at once as President Trump presses forward with his top-to-bottom revamp of U.S. foreign policy, upending not only long-standing policies that the former Florida senator once supported but also the configuration of the executive branch.

Trump’s appointment of Rubio to temporarily replace Mike Waltz as national security advisor is the first major leadership shake-up of his second administration, but Waltz’s removal had been rumored for weeks — ever since he created a Signal group chat and accidentally added a journalist to the conversation in which top national security officials shared sensitive military plans.

So, just over 100 days into his tenure as America’s top diplomat, Rubio now becomes just the second person to hold both positions. He follows only the late Henry Kissinger, who served as both secretary of State and national security advisor for two years under Presidents Nixon and Ford in the 1970s.

Rubio — a onetime Trump rival and hawkish conservative who was derided by the president as “Little Marco” during the 2016 presidential campaign — has proven adept at aligning himself with Trump’s “America First” foreign policy positions. Rubio has largely eschewed his staunch advocacy of providing foreign aid and promoting democracy overseas since taking over the State Department, repeating a refrain that every policy or program should make America safer, stronger or more prosperous.

Rubio leads during Trump’s massive changes

Since being confirmed in a 99-0 Senate floor vote, Rubio has presided over a radical reorganization of the State Department. That includes the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and plans to cut U.S. jobs by 15% while closing or consolidating more than 100 bureaus worldwide. He has also begun a major cull of the visa system, revoking hundreds, if not thousands, of visas issued to foreign students.

He has overseen the negotiation of agreements to send immigrants accused of crimes to third countries, most notably to El Salvador, in cases that are now being challenged in federal courts.

“Marco Rubio, unbelievable,” Trump said Thursday before announcing on social media that Waltz would be nominated as ambassador to the United Nations and Rubio would take over as national security advisor in the interim. “When I have a problem, I call up Marco, he gets it solved.”

That’s a far cry from 2016, when Rubio and Trump were competing for the GOP presidential nomination and Rubio warned that Trump was a threat. After Trump won, the relationship remained contentious, but eight years later, Rubio was an enthusiastic Trump supporter who worked his Florida bona fides to get into the president’s inner circle.

Yet, even after Rubio was nominated to the top diplomatic job, doubts remained. Many pundits suggested he would last only a short time in office before Trump dismissed him in the same way he did his first-term secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who was fired by tweet in 2018 just 18 months into the job.

Yet Rubio has been resilient. And as of Thursday, he oversees both the State Department and the National Security Council, which is responsible for coordinating all executive branch foreign policy functions, ranging from diplomatic to military and intelligence operations.

Thomas Wright, an NSC official during the Biden administration who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the national security advisor post alone is “more than a full-time job.”

“It is just very hard to comprehend the idea that you can do this job sort of part time,” Wright said.

He said he watched national security advisor Jake Sullivan and his deputy work 14-15 hours a day, six to seven days a week: “I think they felt that they had to do that to do the job properly.”

Rubio says little so far on his additional role

Appearing Thursday night on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Rubio was not asked to weigh in on the president’s decision to tap him as national security advisor but did joke that he was barred from adding pope to his list of many jobs because he is married.

But as he marked the first 100 days of Trump’s latest term, Rubio applauded the president for his vision.

“I am honored by the trust President Trump placed in me and I am proud of the work the Department of State has done over the past hundred days to implement his agenda and put the American people first,” he wrote Wednesday in a State Department Substack post.

One of Rubio’s former Florida statehouse colleagues, Dan Gelber, a Democrat, said of Rubio’s increasing responsibilities that “Marco is probably, to a certain extent, one of the more reliable Cabinet officers, if not the most reliable.”

“And I can only believe those qualities are even more vital to his current confluence of positions and growing portfolio,” Gelber said. “He’s not a chaos guy, and I’ve always sort of wondered how he’s going to do in an administration where there seems to be so much chaos. And maybe that’s why he’s getting all these positions.”

Rubio’s dual-hatted role comes on top of him serving as acting administrator of the largely shut down USAID and as acting head of the National Archives. It puts him in a similar position to that of Trump’s longtime personal friend and golfing buddy Steve Witkoff.

As a special envoy, Witkoff is the lead U.S. negotiator in the Iran nuclear talks and in administration peace efforts for the Israel-Hamas war and the Ukraine-Russia war.

In many ways, Rubio and Witkoff are following in the footsteps of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who had multiple roles in the first administration, ranging from brokering peace in the Middle East to dealing with Latin America and immigration.

How Rubio’s expanded duties are seen at the State Department

State Department officials appeared taken aback by Trump’s appointment of Rubio as acting national security advisor. Spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said at a briefing Thursday that she learned the news from a journalist who asked her a question about Trump’s post minutes after it appeared on social media.

Officials, however, have noted that Rubio in recent weeks has spent an increasingly large amount of time at the White House away from his posh seventh-floor State Department office in what is known as “Mahogany Row,” a corridor known for its wood paneling.

At the same time, these officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the personnel shift, said they did not expect Rubio’s duties as secretary of State to change significantly. He still plans to travel on diplomatic missions abroad and likely will delegate at least some of the NSC management to others, they said.

Lee and Amiri write for the Associated Press. Amiri reported from the United Nations.

President Joseph Aoun says Lebanon must not be used as a launchpad for instability or be dragged into unnecessary wars.

Lebanon’s top security body has warned the Palestinian group Hamas against using the country’s territory for acts that could undermine national security, after rocket fire towards Israel led to counterstrikes.

The Higher Defence Council issued the warning on Friday as Lebanon faces growing United States pressure to disarm groups outside state control, following a 14-month war between Israel and the armed Lebanese group Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.

Lebanese authorities are also trying to establish their authority throughout the country, particularly in the south near the border with Israel.

Israel has violated the US-brokered November 2024 truce agreement on a near-daily basis, according to Lebanese authorities, including three air attacks on the capital Beirut.

In a statement, the council headed by President Joseph Aoun said Lebanon must not be used as a launchpad for instability or be dragged into unnecessary wars.

It added that “the utmost measures and necessary procedures will be taken to put a definitive end to any act that violates Lebanese sovereignty.”

Aoun, who previously served as army commander, has pledged to bring all weapons in the country under the state’s authority, but has admitted that disarming Hezbollah, which the US has been pressuring Lebanon to do, is a “delicate” matter.

Mohammad al-Mustafa, secretary-general of the council, told reporters on Friday that while Aoun highlighted the importance of Palestinian rights, he also stressed that Lebanese stability should not be compromised.

Hamas has a longstanding presence within Lebanon, including in camps across the country that host hundreds of thousands of longtime Palestinian refugees, and where Lebanese security forces have long had only limited authority.

Along with Hezbollah, Hamas fighters in Lebanon fired rockets across the southern border into Israel in solidarity with Palestinians after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, when Israel began a huge bombardment campaign in Gaza.

Since then, Israeli air attacks have killed several Hamas commanders in Lebanon, including the group’s deputy chief in early 2024.

Israel has cited security concerns for its continued deadly raids on Lebanon, despite the ceasefire.

In a bid to address the concerns of Israel and the US, which brokered the ceasefire, the Lebanese army arrested Lebanese and Palestinian individuals accused of firing rockets towards Israel on March 22 and March 28.

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, and Hezbollah has denied any involvement.

But a Lebanese security source told the AFP news agency that security forces arrested three Hamas members.

The council said legal proceedings would begin early next week against those detained over the rocket fire in March.

Classification, based on attempts to ‘undermine free democratic order’, opens way for surveillance of party and likely to revive discussion of a ban.

Germany’s domestic intelligence service has designated the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a “right-wing extremist” group.

The designation, made public by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution on Friday following an audit by the BfV security service, makes the party subject to surveillance. It could also revive discussion over a potential ban for the AfD, which has surged in popularity in recent years and placed second in February’s general election.

The BfV, which had already designated several local AfD chapters as extremist, said it decided to give the entire party the label due to its attempts to “undermine the free, democratic” order in Germany.

“This is evident in the numerous xenophobic, anti-minority, anti-Islamic, and anti-Muslim statements continually made by leading party officials,” it added.

The AfD, which has capitalised on growing anti-immigration sentiment amid the country’s economic slowdown and currently tops several opinion polls, condemned the designation as “clearly politically motivated”.

The designation comes just days before Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is due to be sworn in as Germany’s new chancellor.

There is a heated debate within the party, which has thrashed out a coalition deal with the left-leaning Social Democrats, over how to deal with the AfD in the new parliament.

The classification will make it easier for the authorities to use secret methods to monitor the AfD, including intercepting communications.

It could also reignite attempts to get the AfD banned.

Germany’s outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz from the Social Democrats said on Friday that he is against rushing to outlaw the AfD, adding it should be evaluated “carefully”.

The radical right-wing party has been under scrutiny by the BfV for its links to extremists and its ties to Russia for some time.

Of the 38,800 far-right extremists counted by the agency last year, more than 10,000 are members.

Certain factions of the AfD, including three regional parties in the east of the country as well as its youth wing, were already classified as extremist.

The party at large was classified as a suspected extremist case in 2021. The security services have now formalised the designation for the national party as a whole.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the classification was “clear and unambiguous” and had resulted from a 1,100-page “comprehensive and neutral audit” that had no political influence.

AfD’s co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla charged in a statement that the party is “being publicly discredited and criminalised”.

“It is sad to see the state of democracy in our country when the old parties are now even using the most politically questionable means against the strongest opposition party,” said Anton Baron, an AfD legislator in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

United States President Donald Trump has announced he plans to reassign Mike Waltz, removing him from his current role as his national security adviser and nominating him instead to be ambassador to the United Nations.

The revelation on Thursday comes after a morning of intense speculation that Waltz and his second-in-command, Deputy National Security Adviser Alex Wong, had been pushed out of their roles.

“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role.”

Trump said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would instead step into the role of national security adviser, while continuing in his role as the country’s top diplomat.

“Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN,” Trump said.

The president’s message seemed to confirm the first major staffing shake-up of his second term. Earlier in the day, anonymous sources had told major US news outlets that Waltz had been forced out, after his relationship with Trump cooled.

Waltz’s reputation has suffered from an incident in which he appears to have added a journalist to a private chat on the app Signal where details of US military attacks were shared.

But Trump has publicly stood by Waltz and refused to mete out punishment for the Signal scandal.

During his first term, Trump also made a habit of cycling through national security advisers. Over his four years in office, he had four different national security advisers, starting with retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who lasted only four weeks.

Waltz was a former US Congress member, who represented Florida’s 6th district starting in 2019. Although he was re-elected to his seat in 2024, he stepped down from his congressional role in January to join the Trump administration.

Previously, he had served in the US army as a Green Beret, a branch of the special forces.

“Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda, and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength,” Trump wrote on November 12, when he first announced Waltz as his pick for national security adviser.

But Waltz’s foreign-policy background has been a source of scrutiny. While Trump has positioned himself as a “peacemaker and unifier” during his second term, promising to end world conflict, critics point out that Waltz has historically taken a more hawkish stance.

He served as a counterterrorism adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney under the administration of former President George W Bush, and he opposed the large-scale withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan without concessions from the Taliban.

That made Waltz and his staff a target for some among Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) base. At a White House meeting in April, far-right social media personality Laura Loomer reportedly criticised national security officials, including Waltz.

After that meeting, Trump fired six National Security Council (NSC) officials, although Waltz and Wong were not among them.

On Thursday, Loomer appeared to celebrate Waltz’s and Wong’s departures on social media. “Hopefully, the rest of the people who were set to be fired but were given promotions at the NSC under Waltz also depart,” she wrote.

But Waltz’s standing in the White House was particularly weakened after the revelation that editor Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic magazine was added to a private chat in which top officials discussed a bombing campaign in Yemen.

In his chronicle of the incident, Goldberg said he received an unexpected invitation from a Signal account identified as Waltz’s. At first, Goldberg questioned whether the invitation was real. But after accepting, he found himself in the midst of a conversation with individuals including Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Rubio.

They appeared to be discussing upcoming plans to bomb targets associated with the Houthis, a Yemen-based armed group. Those details, shared by Hegseth, included the precise timings and aircraft used in the bombing campaign.

Waltz has admitted his role in the scandal, and the White House has since said the issue was “case closed”.

“I take full responsibility. I built the group,” Waltz told Fox News in March. Of Goldberg, he added: “We’ve got the best technical minds looking into how this happened. But I can tell you for 100 percent: I don’t know this guy.”

To take up his new role as UN ambassador, Waltz will face a Senate confirmation hearing — a process he did not have to undergo as a national security adviser. His involvement in the “Signalgate” scandal is likely to take a central role in his Senate questioning.

The UN ambassador’s position has been open since Trump yanked the nomination of Representative Elise Stefanik on March 27, on the premise that her seat in Congress was too valuable — and too vulnerable — to be put up for grabs in a special election.

Waltz acknowledged his nomination to the ambassadorship in a one-line social media post on Thursday.

“I’m deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation,” he wrote.

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday he’s nominating his national security advisor Mike Waltz to serve as United Nations ambassador in a major shake-up of his national security team.

The president said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve simultaneously as acting national security advisor while maintaining his position at the State Department.

Trump announced the moves shortly after news broke that Waltz was leaving the administration, just weeks after it was revealed that he had added a journalist to a Signal chat being used to discuss military plans.

“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations. From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first,” Trump wrote on social media.

“In the interim, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as National Security Advisor, while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department. Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN.”

There is precedent for the secretary of State to serve simultaneously as national security advisor. Henry Kissinger held both positions from 1973-75.

Waltz came under searing scrutiny in March after revelations that he added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a private text chain on the encrypted messaging app Signal, which was used to discuss planning for a sensitive March 15 military operation against Houthi militants in Yemen.

Trump’s decision to move Waltz to the U.N. comes weeks after he pulled his pick for the job, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, from consideration.

Stefanik went through a confirmation hearing, but her nomination was pulled in March because her vote to advance Trump’s agenda remains crucial to Republicans in the House.

“I’m deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation,” Waltz said of the nomination.

A far-right ally of the president, Laura Loomer, had been targeting Waltz, telling Trump in a recent Oval Office conversation that he needs to purge aides who she believes are insufficiently loyal to the “Make America Great Again” agenda.

Waltz served in the House representing Florida for three terms before being tapped for national security advisor.

In his second term, the Republican president had been looking to avoid the tumult of his first four years in office, during which he cycled through four national security advisors, four White House chiefs of staff and two secretaries of State.

The Signal chain episode also showed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop. Waltz had previously taken “full responsibility” for building the message chain and administration officials described the episode as a “mistake” but one that caused Americans no harm. Waltz maintained that he was not sure how Goldberg ended up in the messaging chain, and insisted he did not know the journalist.

Trump and the White House — which insisted that no classified information was shared on the text chain — have stood by Waltz publicly throughout the episode. But the embattled national security advisor was also under siege from personalities such as Loomer, who had been complaining to administration officials that she had been excluded from the vetting process for National Security Council aides.

In her view, Waltz relied too much on “neocons” — referring to hawkish neoconservatives within the Republican Party — as well as others who Loomer argued were “not-MAGA-enough” types.

As reports began to circulate that Waltz could be leaving the administration, Loomer appeared to take credit in a post on the social media site X, writing: “SCALP.”

“Hopefully, the rest of the people who were set to be fired but were given promotions at the NSC under Waltz also depart,” Loomer wrote in another post.

Loomer had taken a similar victory lap when several other National Security Council officials were dismissed last month one day after she met with Trump.

Questions are also swirling around Hegseth and his role in the Signal chat.

Although Waltz set it up, Hegseth posted times for aircraft launches and bomb drops into the unsecured app and shared the same information with dozens of people in a second chat, including his wife and brother.

The Associated Press reported that Hegseth also bypassed Pentagon security protocols to set up an unsecured line for a personal computer in his office –- beside terminals where he was receiving classified information. That raises the possibility that sensitive information could have been put at risk of potential hacking or surveillance.

The Pentagon inspector general is investigating Hegseth’s use of Signal, and he has faced criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans. It has added to the turmoil at the Pentagon at a time when Hegseth has dismissed or transferred multiple close advisors. Nonetheless, Trump has maintained public confidence in Hegseth.

Waltz‘s shift from national security advisor to U.N. ambassador nominee means he will now have to face the Senate confirmation process he was able to avoid in January.

The process, which proved to be difficult for a number of Trump’s Cabinet picks, will give lawmakers, especially Democrats, the first chance to grill Waltz on his decision to share information about an imminent U.S. airstrike on Signal. The group chat, which Waltz created, included several high-level Trump administration officials and the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic magazine.

Miller, Madhani and Kim write for the Associated Press. AP writers Tara Copp and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

May 1 (UPI) — Reports say President Donald Trump will nominate National Security adviser Mike Waltz as the nation’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Unnamed sources earlier told Politico, the New York Times, ABC News and other news outlets that Waltz was about to become the first senior-level adviser released by Trump.

Hours after the reports surfaced, Trump announced his plans to nominate Waltz to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Trump also said he will name Secretary of State Marco Rubio to replace Waltz as national security adviser on an interim basis.

The Senate must confirm Waltz’s ambassadorship and his eventual permanent replacement as National Security adviser.

Trump previously nominated Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but she withdrew her consideration for the position.

Stefanik might run for election as New York’s governor, which has led to tensions between her and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., The Hill reported.

Waltz’s possible replacement as National Security adviser had been discussed for weeks within the White House, ABC News reported.

Some have suggested special envoy Steve Witkoff might step into the role if it becomes vacant.

Witkoff is representing the United States in negotiations with Russia, Iran and Hamas to try to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Other potential replacements include Stephen Miller, who is Trump’s primary policy adviser; Richard Grenell, who is the president’s special envoy for special missions; and Sebastian Gorka, who is the National Security Council’s senior director for counterterrorism, Politico reported.

Deputy National Security Adviser Alex Wong also might leave his position, the news outlets reported.

Waltz is a military veteran, a former member of Congress from Florida from 2019 until 2025, and a former member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Waltz accidentally included The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg in a secure Signal app chat discussing pending aerial strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on March 15.

Goldberg afterward reported he had been included in the chat due to a mistake made by a Waltz staffer, who intended to include someone else in the chat and not Goldberg.

The military strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen have continued since March 15.

Trump says they won’t end until the Houthis stop attacking commercial shipping and U.S. military assets in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and in the air.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for the latest updates.

Japan’s Ishiba and Philippines’s Marcos meet in Manila as nations confront China’s assertiveness in South China Sea.

The leaders of Japan and the Philippines have pledged to deepen their security ties, including increased intelligence sharing, as they grapple with territorial disputes with China.

On his first visit to the Philippines since assuming office in October, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Tuesday that the two countries oppose “attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea and the South China Sea by force or coercion”.

Speaking after talks with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr in Manila, Ishiba said the two leaders agreed to begin negotiations on a defence pact formally known as the Acquisition and Cross-servicing Agreement.

The deal would allow the provision of food, fuel and other necessities when Japanese forces visit the Philippines for joint training under a major defence accord that was signed last year and is expected to be ratified by the Japanese legislature. The Philippine Senate ratified it in December.

Ishiba said he and Marcos “also confirmed the start of government-to-government talks towards sealing a security of information agreement in the future”.

The Philippine president added that Tokyo’s previous security assistance had “allowed our security agencies and especially the Department of National Defence to achieve meaningful upgrades” and praised a “golden age” in their relations.

The talks in Manila were held as both Japan and the Philippines have faced increased tensions with China.

Chinese-Philippine ties have been tested repeatedly by confrontations involving the two nations’ coastguard vessels in the disputed South China Sea.

Japan has its own dispute with China over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea known as the Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, which are claimed by Beijing but administered by Tokyo.

The Philippines and China are also at loggerheads over a disputed sandbank in the South China Sea.

On Monday, Beijing accused six Filipinos of illegally landing on the Tiexian Reef, also known as Sandy Cay, despite “warnings and dissuasion” from the Chinese side. Beijing said the action “violated China’s territorial sovereignty”.

Their shared grievances over China’s territorial claims have seen Japan and the Philippines draw increasingly close to each other as well as towards the United States.

Late last year, Marcos and former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Washington for a trilateral summit with then-US President Joe Biden.

Ishiba said he and Marcos had “affirmed the importance of Japan-US-Philippines cooperation” during Tuesday’s meeting.

On the economic front, the Japanese premier said the two men had also talked about the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz.

“We discussed the current measures taken by the United States as well as the impact felt on … the world economy because of the reciprocal retaliation seen between the United States and China,” Ishiba said.

The Iranian nuclear negotiations with Europe and the United States from 2000 to 2025 represent one of international relations’ most intricate diplomatic dossiers. These talks, aimed at overseeing Iran’s nuclear program and preventing its acquisition of nuclear weapons, have encompassed numerous issues, including uranium enrichment, inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the lifting of sanctions. A key topic in these negotiations has been the proposal to transfer Iran’s enriched uranium outside the country to alleviate Western concerns regarding the potential militarization of Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran’s nuclear program became a global issue in 2002 after the disclosure of nuclear activities at the Natanz and Arak facilities by the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) and confirmation by Western intelligence services. Since then, numerous negotiations have occurred between Iran and Western groups, particularly the European trio of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, and later the P5+1 (United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany). Initial negotiations focused on confidence-building measures and the suspension of enrichment, but as Iran’s nuclear program progressed, the transfer of enriched uranium abroad was proposed as a way to reduce Iran’s stockpile and ensure peaceful objectives. These proposals were often aimed at reducing Iran’s ability to produce highly enriched uranium. Still, they were met with varied reactions, ranging from conditional acceptance to outright rejection by Iran.

The Proposal for Uranium Transfer

In 2010, negotiations mediated by Brazil and Turkey were held to resolve the Iranian nuclear dispute. Following interactions between the parties, these talks reached a deadlock. In 2012, Iran’s negotiations with the P5+1 in Moscow concluded without result. The negotiations leading to the JCPOA in 2015 marked a turning point in our nation’s nuclear diplomacy. During the Lausanne and Vienna negotiations, the P5+1 proposed that Iran significantly reduce its enriched uranium stockpile (approximately 10 tons of varying enrichment levels). According to the agreement, Iran agreed to transfer about 8.5 tons of enriched uranium to Russia in exchange for 140 tons of yellowcake (raw uranium). This proposal, part of Iran’s commitments to reach the “Implementation Day” of the JCPOA, was implemented on January 7, 2016. Iran accepted this proposal with conditions. This action (along with redesigning the Arak reactor and reducing centrifuges) led to the lifting of UN, US, and European sanctions in January 2016. However, the US withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018 and the reimposition of sanctions weakened Iran’s trust in such agreements. Yet, in the latest development, during the first round of indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States in Oman, the United States proposed that Iran transfer its highly enriched uranium stockpile (60 percent) to a third country, such as Russia. This proposal, part of the US effort to limit Iran’s nuclear program, was raised during indirect meetings between Abbas Araghchi and Steve Witkoff. Iran argues that transferring uranium stockpiles abroad carries a high risk, especially given the US withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018. On April 15, Araghchi told the media: “Uranium stockpiles should remain under IAEA supervision in Iran. […] If the US violates the agreement again, rebuilding stockpiles from scratch is illogical.” Iran emphasized that any agreement must include the complete lifting of sanctions and legal guarantees. The rejection of this proposal complicated the Oman talks but did not lead to a deadlock.

The Second Round of Negotiations