Amid murky nuclear talks between the United States and Iran, a group of Republican senators has drawn a line in the sand on enrichment.
Sens. Katie Britt (R., Ala.), Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) last week introduced a resolution demanding the “complete dismantlement and destruction of Iran’s nuclear program” in any agreement struck between Washington and Tehran—a condition President Donald Trump may not attach to a new deal.
The resolution holds that any pact between the two countries must mandate that Iran “forgo domestic uranium enrichment, the reprocessing of spent fuel, and the development or possession of any enrichment or reprocessing infrastructure or capacity.”
Despite the clear language from Republican senators, the executive branch has sent mixed messages on whether it will allow Iran to continue enriching uranium as part of a revamped nuclear deal—perhaps the most contentious aspect of any agreement.
President Trump indicated last week that he has not yet decided if Iran will be granted the right to do so, and Vice President J.D. Vance said Tehran “can have civil nuclear power,” which he and the administration “don’t mind.”
As the White House determines whether to allow Iran to continue enriching uranium, a recent agreement between Iran and Russia has the potential to complicate things.
Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed to extend a line of credit to Tehran, begin building a new nuclear facility in the country, and expand ongoing work at the Bushehr plant.
Iranian oil minister Mohsen Paknejad, discussing the deal on April 25, said that “Tehran and Moscow are seeking to accelerate the implementation and finalization of cooperation memorandums with Russia’s Gazprom,” a state-controlled entity.
Russia’s central role in expanding the Iranian nuclear landscape appears certain to cast a shadow over the administration’s diplomatic engagements. Putin’s government and the country’s state-run energy firms stand to gain billions from this nuclear work, revenue important to Moscow as it pours cash into its military campaign against Ukraine.
Elliott Abrams, who most recently served as U.S. special representative to Iran in the first Trump administration, said throwing a wrench in the ongoing talks is exactly what Russian leaders intended.
“The Russian offer to build nuclear plants in Iran is meant to undermine the U.S.-Iran negotiations,” Abrams told the Washington Free Beacon. “We may want Iran to forgo enrichment, taking the enriched fuel it needs for nuclear plants from other countries and returning the spent fuel afterwards. But the Russians may have no such conditions, allowing Iran to build more and more nuclear plants while still enriching to very high, bomb-level numbers.”
Andrea Stricker, a veteran nonproliferation expert with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the Trump administration must seize the opportunity to sanction both Iran and Russia over their broadening nuclear cooperation.
“The administration has a robust one-two punch at the ready against Russia and Iran, which the Biden administration failed to use,” Stricker told the Free Beacon. “It should sanction Russia’s nuclear work in Iran and the financial institutions that fund it, thereby raising the cost of Moscow helping Tehran build out its nuclear sector. This will have a chilling effect on other countries assisting Iran’s nuclear program, which must be off-limits to foreign investment and trade due to the regime’s egregious nonproliferation violations.”
It is unclear, however, whether Russian-Iranian collaboration is on the administration’s radar as it continues discussions. The State Department declined to comment on the partnership or say whether the issue is on the negotiating team’s agenda. A senior administration official, though, told the Free Beacon that Trump and his advisers are optimistic that the United States can broker a deal with Iran under special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff’s leadership.
“Senior Adviser and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff participated in a fourth round of talks with Iran today in Muscat,” the official said on Sunday. “The discussions were again both direct and indirect, and lasted over three hours. Agreement was reached to move forward with the talks to continue working through technical elements. We are encouraged by today’s outcome and look forward to our next meeting, which will happen in the near future. We thank our Omani partners for their continued facilitation.”
Despite the senior administration official’s confidence, Abrams expressed concern that Witkoff lacks the experience necessary to conduct highly technical negotiations with Tehran. He noted that the original 2015 agreement sprawled across nearly every aspect of Iran’s nuclear industry.
“This is complicated and dangerous, and the Iranian negotiators have long experience,” Abrams told the Free Beacon. “Our negotiator, Steven Witkoff, has none, and that is worrying. When he next sits down with Putin, instead of flattery he should ask why he’s trying to screw up our efforts to stop an Iranian bomb.”
Multiple Republican lawmakers, for their part, told the Free Beacon they expect the Trump administration to come around on the issue.
“The Biden administration deliberately enabled nuclear cooperation between Russia and Iran, solidifying an alliance in which Putin boosted the Ayatollah’s nuclear program, and in exchange, Iran sent resources and weapons to Russia’s war machine,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said. “I fought for years to counter that cooperation, including through legislation, and now, with President Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign and a Republican Congress, it’s time to break it.”
Cruz circulated legislation in 2023 aimed at stopping the Biden administration from issuing sanctions waivers allowing Iranian-Russian nuclear collaboration to continue. During their own failed negotiations, former president Joe Biden and his advisers guaranteed Russia that it would be allowed to continue building out Iran’s nuclear infrastructure under a potential future deal.
Elected Republicans like Cruz and first-term Trump ally Rep. Randy Fine (R., Fla.) believe the current administration will successfully deter Iranian aggression.
“Under President Trump’s strong leadership, we’ll see a dramatic shift in Iran’s behavior,” Fine told the Free Beacon. “Biden’s ‘diplomacy’ that enabled this is a betrayal, but Trump’s resolve will restore America’s strength and Israel’s security.”
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