With a second round of talks likely to take place this week between the US and Iranian regimes over its illicit nuclear weapons programs, leading experts on Tehran’s program say the Trump administration was right to walk away.
After nearly a day of talks, Vice President JD Vance’s team pulled the plug on negotiations taking place in Pakistan, a move welcomed by experts in the field.
A nuclear conflict between the US and Iran is over Tehran’s desire to enrich uranium – the material used to build nuclear weapons.
WITKOFF WARNS IRAN IS ‘A WEEK AWAY’ FROM ‘BOMB MAKING MATERIAL’ AS TRUMP WEIGHS ACTION
Vice President JD Vance spoke during a press conference in Islamabad, Pakistan, on April 12, 2026, after meeting with representatives from Pakistan and Iran. Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, special envoy for peacekeeping missions, listened during the event. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
In 2018, President Donald Trump withdrew from President Barack Obama’s nuclear weapons deal with Iran because his administration argued that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the deal’s formal name, allowed Iran to build a nuclear bomb.
When asked what a good nuclear deal would look like, Stricker said: “A good deal requires that the regime not only transfers its nuclear fuel, dismantles key facilities and commits to a permanent ban on enrichment, but also cooperates in an IAEA investigation that fully and fully accounts for and dismantles Iran’s facilities, equipment, documentation, centrifuges and related production capabilities.”
Stricker acknowledged that the process could take several years, but noted that “the IAEA is well-equipped for this mission and has experience dismantling nuclear weapons programs in Iraq, Libya and South Africa. Anything less would likely see Iran renege on its promises and re-establish an escape route.”
TRUMP REVEALS IRAN MADE ‘IMPORTANT PROPOSAL’ AFTER ULTIMATUM, BUT ‘NOT GOOD ENOUGH’
Senator Lindsey Graham said Monday he opposes a reported US proposal for a 20-year ban on Iranian uranium enrichment under a potential deal.
“I appreciate President Donald Trump’s decision to end the Iranian conflict peacefully and through diplomacy. However, we must not forget who we are dealing with in Iran: terrorists, liars and cheats,” Graham wrote on X.
“If this reporting is correct, the idea that we would agree to a moratorium on enrichment rather than a ban on enrichment would in my view be a mistake,” he said.
‘Would we agree to a moratorium on the enrichment of Al Qaeda? No.’
In this photo released by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, technicians work on the secondary circuit of the Arak heavy water reactor as officials and media visit the site, near Arak, 150 miles southwest of the capital Tehran, in December 2019. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran/AP)
David Albright, a physicist and founder and chairman of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, DC, praised the US decision to end talks in Pakistan. On his X account, which is closely followed by Iran watchers, he wrote: “The US was right to walk out on Islamabad.”
He added that a good nuclear deal for the US would mean “no enrichment and no stockpiles of HEU.” [Highly Enriched Uranium] and LEU [Low Enriched Uranium]; Iran is cooperating with the inspectors, demonstrably ending its nuclear weapons program and issuing a full nuclear declaration, something it has never done.”
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Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were greeted by Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Army Chief Field Marshal General Asim Munir upon their arrival at Nur Khan Air Base in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on April 11, 2026. (Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs/AP)
Albright continued: “If Iran indicates a willingness to accept the American position, another meeting makes sense.
“Iran has absolutely no need for enrichment. Its only civilian need is a small amount of 20% enriched for its small research reactor, the Tehran Research Reactor, and it has enough 20% enriched uranium into fuel or nearly converted into fuel stored in Iran and Russia under JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] arrangement for twenty years.”
He concluded, “To turn it around, and to paraphrase Abbie Hoffman, I have the right to scream theater into a crowded fire, but I won’t. Iran’s emphasis on its right to enrichment is equally irrelevant and beside the point.”
