United States Vice President JD Vance has called for Iran to make a “meaningful” reduction in its uranium enrichment capacity as part of an agreement to end the war, a demand experts say may signal a softening of Washington’s earlier insistence that Tehran abandon enrichment altogether. His comments come amid hardline rhetoric from other senior US officials. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reiterated that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, while President Donald Trump has warned the war will end through either “the nice way or the not-so-nice way”.
Officials in Tehran, meanwhile, have questioned whether Washington genuinely wants negotiations as the US-Israel war on Iran enters its eighth month. As both sides stake out their positions, Simon Mabon, a professor of international relations at Lancaster University, told Al Jazeera that the prospect of Iran seeking a nuclear weapon has remained remote. Tehran’s negotiators are more concerned with sanctions, frozen Iranian assets, the US naval blockade and fighting across the region – issues he says remain the main obstacles to a deal.
Vance told the news agency that Iran needed to demonstrate its commitment to not developing nuclear weapons by changing its enrichment programme. That’s a very basic threshold issue.” Enriching uranium makes it usable as fuel for nuclear reactors or, at much higher levels, for nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran had enriched uranium to 60 percent, below the roughly 90 percent considered weapons-grade.
In its May 2025 assessment, it found no credible indications of a structured nuclear programme. Vance added that the US was speaking with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, although “it’s not totally clear how their country makes decisions”. Meanwhile, Rubio, speaking to reporters in Athens, accused Iran of missing several opportunities to reach an agreement.
He also claimed Iran had “lost complete control” of the Strait of Hormuz and that its economy was “in total and complete freefall”. Under “crippling” sanctions, it was “about to reach a place few countries in the world have been”, he argued. Analysts say the comments suggest pressure on Tehran remains central to Washington’s approach, even as Vance’s wording leaves open questions about what nuclear restrictions it would accept.
Pezeshkian said on Monday that negotiations with Washington were “futile”, accusing the US of using talks while pursuing Iran’s government. On the contrary, their goal is to bring down the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency. The statements follow an Iranian proposal presented during the United Nations General Assembly in New York in late September to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume negotiations.
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