With US pressure rising, Iran agrees to 'never, ever have nuclear material, Oman mediator says

Oman’s foreign minister has said Iran has agreed it will “never, ever have … nuclear material” capable of producing a bomb, describing the breakthrough as a major step towards defusing tensions between Washington and Tehran.Speaking to CBS News after mediating several rounds of indirect talks, Badr Albusaidi said negotiators had made “substantial progress” and that a “peace deal is within our reach”. He said Tehran had committed not only to forgo nuclear weapons but also to ensure there would be “zero accumulation, zero stockpiling, and full verification” under any agreement.According to Albusaidi, Iran’s existing stockpiles of enriched uranium would be blended down to the lowest enrichment levels and converted into nuclear fuel in a way that would be irreversible.

He added that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency would be granted full access to nuclear facilities to verify compliance. If a fair and durable deal were secured, he said he was confident that even American inspectors could be allowed access at some stage.The remarks come as Donald Trump weighs his next move. The US president said he was “not happy” with the pace of negotiations after the latest round of talks in Geneva ended without a breakthrough.

“They cannot have nuclear weapons,” he told reporters, adding that Iranian negotiators “don’t want to quite go far enough”.While threatening military action if Iran refuses a far-reaching deal, Trump has also indicated he is willing to give talks more time. “I’d rather not tell you,” he said when asked how close he was to ordering a strike, acknowledging that “when there’s war, there’s a risk of anything”.Diplomatic activity has intensified across the region. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to visit Israel, as Washington urges progress on Iran and other regional priorities. The United Nations has called on both sides to stay on the diplomatic track, even as military assets build up in the Middle East.