US Reportedly Mulls Easing Iran Sanctions, Assisting Non-Enrichment Nuclear Program

Gulf Insider

5 hours ago

In an entirely bizarre and unexpected pivot, and following yesterday's Trump statements suggesting that a new Iran nuclear deal might not even be necessary (given the narrative that its enriched uranium and nuclear capability has been fullly destroyed), the White House is already in discussions for a deal both to ease Iran sanctions and potentially help the Islamic Republic build a civilian-energy-producing nuclear program, but importantly without domestic enrichment.
'The Trump administration has discussed possibly helping Iran access as much as $30 billion to build a civilian-energy-producing nuclear program, easing sanctions, and freeing up billions of dollars in restricted Iranian funds – all part of an intensifying attempt to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table, four sources familiar with the matter said,' a fresh Thursday CNN report says.
'Key players from the US and the Middle East have talked with the Iranians behind the scenes even amid the flurry of military strikes in Iran and Israel over the past two weeks, the sources said,' the report continues. 'Those discussions have continued this week after a ceasefire deal was struck, the sources said.'
The report says multiple early-stage proposals are under discussion, but all based on a key non-negotiable: that Iran must halt all uranium enrichment. However, this is one red line that Tehran has been insistent it won't give in to, as a matter of national sovereignty.
According to more from the CNN claims:
Among the terms being discussed, which have not been previously reported, is an estimated $20-30 billion investment in a new Iranian non-enrichment nuclear program that would be used for civilian energy purposes, Trump administration officials and sources familiar with the proposal told CNN. One official insisted that money would not come directly from the US, which prefers its Arab partners foot the bill. Investment in Iran's nuclear energy facilities has been discussed in previous rounds of nuclear talks in recent months.
'The US is willing to lead these talks,' a Trump admin source said. 'And someone is going to need to pay for the nuclear program to be built, but we will not make that commitment.' Arab partners would be pressured to foot the bill, the report emphasizes, also at a moment there's a new push to expand the Abraham Accords.
Thursday afternoon WH press briefing hinted at the accuracy of the CNN report:
▶️ The White House Spokeswoman says Steve Witkoff and his team are talking to Iran as well as the US' Arab partners to come to agreement with IranLeavitt suggests that perhaps more Persian Gulf States could potentially sign on to the Abraham Accords. pic.twitter.com/g0tIeBiSvx — SpeakWithDeeDee (@SpeakWithDeeDee) June 26, 2025
If true, this would constitute quite a drastic – almost total 180 shift – even as the dust still settles in the wake of the massive weekend US B-2 strikes on Iran this weekend. At this point it has yet to be proven that Iran's nuclear development capability has been truly destroyed and halted (WH assertions notwithstanding). Yet now suddenly, the US could be mulling a 'truly peaceful nuclear energy program' method of assistance for Tehran.
But the White House might at any moment deny the contents of this new CNN report and the claims therein.
As expected Hegseth during the Thursday morning Pentagon press conference excoriated the mainstream media for its coverage of the Trump-ordered attacks on Iran's nuclear sites. This after repeatedly praising Trump's leadership at yesterday's NATO summit.
'I hope, with all the ink spilled, all of your outlets find the time to properly recognize this historic change in continental security that other presidents tried to do, other presidents talked about,' Hegseth said. 'President Trump accomplished it. It's a huge deal.' He strongly pushed back especially against CNN reporting that the strikes merely set back Iran's nuclear program by months, again, framing the avalanche of MSM skepticism as supposedly due merely to anti-Trump bias and not wanting to give him a 'win'.
'Again, it was preliminary, a day and a half after the actual strike, when it admits itself in writing that it requires weeks to accumulate the necessary data to make such an assessment,' the defense secretary said. The president 'created the conditions to end the war, decimating – choose your word – obliterating, destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities,' he asserted, before reading aloud the assessments of various US and foreign intelligence heads.
Much of the press conference consisted of a highly detailed narrative of what it was like for troops – from officers to enlisted privates – in the Middle East as Iran's very brief retaliatory missile strike rained down on Qatar, and US-manned anti-air batteries intercepted the inbound projectiles. There was also a lot of focus on the pilots and crew of the B-2s and their marathon 37-hour bombing run all the way from Missouri to Tehran and back. The presser, especially while Hegseth was speaking, was charged with patriotism and emotion – much more than is normal for a Pentagon press briefing.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine emphasized in a detailed way the specs of the 30,000 pound bombs dropped on the Iranian sites, and they 'functioned as designed, meaning they exploded.'
Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine demonstrates how GBU-57 MOPs work: "Unlike a normal surface bomb, you won't see an impact crater because they're designed to deeply bury and then function … All six weapons at each vent at Fordow went exactly where they were intended to go." pic.twitter.com/iQs3oWcJ4X — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 26, 2025
'A point that I want to make here: the Joint Force does not do [battle damage assessments],' Caine told the press pool. 'By design, we don't grade our own homework. The intelligence community does. But here's what we know following the attacks and the strikes on Fordow: First, that the weapons were built, tested and loaded properly. Two, the weapons were released on speed and on parameters. Three, the weapons all guided to their intended targets and to their intended aim points. Four, the weapons functioned as designed, meaning they exploded. We know this through other means intelligence means that we have that were visibly, we were visibly able to see them. And we know that the trailing jets saw the first weapons function.' He actually cited one pilot's eyewitness account as saying the blast from the initial bombs was so big as it was like an overwhelming flash of daylight.
Among the more interesting assertions and revelations was that the Pentagon has been working intensely on the operation, particularly to take out the Fordow site, for-15 years . While the US military often spends a lot of time on various 'contingency' options to present to the Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Caine's description of two Pentagon analysts who devoted a decade-and-a-half of their lives to studying just Fordow strongly suggests the US long ago knew it would pull the trigger at some point.
'In the days preceding the attack against Fordow, the Iranians attempted to cover the shafts with concrete to try to prevent an attack. I won't share the specific dimensions of the concrete cap, but you should know that we know what the dimensions of those concrete caps were,' Caine said. 'The planners had to account for this, they accounted for everything. The cap was forcibly removed by the first weapon, and the main shaft was uncovered.'
At Pentagon, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Caine, explained 15 years of planning for disabling Fordo nuclear facility.A team focused on deeply buried, underground targets were briefed on a construction project in Iran in 2009."They knew from the very first days what… pic.twitter.com/2D6lR9qEex — Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) June 26, 2025
And President Trump soon after the Pentagon briefing ended, wrote the following on Truth Social:
Meanwhile, Fox is reporting that the Senate has finally received a delayed Iran briefing. This seems to continue a long GWOT era tradition of presidents across administrations bombing first, and then notifying Congress later.
Meanwhile, the international debate over just where Iran's enriched uranium stockpile is now located (if it's not destroyed) continues to intensify, despite the Trump denials that it remains: TRUMP: NOTHING WAS TAKEN OUT OF THE FACILITY
IRAN LAW SUSPENDING IAEA COOPERATION COMES INTO EFFECT
Simultaneous to Trump issuing another statement rejecting the thesis that the uranium has been moved and hidden, Financial Times reports in a strangely worded headline ('Iran moved uranium from Fordow before US strikes, EU capitals believe' ) the following:
Iran's highly enriched uranium stockpile remains largely intact following US strikes on its main nuclear sites, European capitals believe, calling into question President Donald Trump's assertion that the bombing 'obliterated' the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.
Two people briefed on preliminary intelligence assessments said European capitals believe Iran's stockpile of 408kg of uranium enriched close to weapons-grade levels was not concentrated in Fordow, one of its two main enrichment sites, at the time of last weekend's attack. It had been distributed to various other locations, the capitals believe.
This would indeed be an interesting twist – that the bulk of enriched uranium stockpiles were not even located at Fordow, which appeared to be the heaviest hit in the US operation. According to more:
The people said EU capitals were still awaiting a full intelligence report on the extent of the damage to Fordow — which was built deep beneath a mountain near the holy city of Qom — and that one initial report suggested 'extensive damages, but not full structural destruction'. Iranian officials have suggested the enriched uranium stockpile was moved before the US bombing of the plant, which came after days of Israeli strikes on the country.
But again, the White House as well as Thursday Pentagon presser is sticking by the Trump claim of total and utter obliteration. Perhaps the world will learn the truth in the coming days and weeks, or possibly not at all, pending 'proof' and data from the ground, which the Iranians will likely not be willing to give. For some of our prior coverage on this pressing coverage, see–
Where Is Iran's Uranium? Top Secret Leaked US Intel Says Core Nuclear Components 'Intact'
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After blasting the 'fake news' and mainstream outlets NY Times and CNN in particular in Wednesday comments at the NATO summit, President Trump will continue 'setting the record straight' on the Iran bombings, as the Pentagon is set to hold an 'irrefutable' press conference on Thursday morning, providing more details on last weekend's B-2 bomber raids on the Iranian nuclear sites of (per AI summary)– Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant: A heavily fortified, deeply buried uranium enrichment site near the northern city of Qom.
A heavily fortified, deeply buried uranium enrichment site near the northern city of Qom. Natanz Nuclear Facility: Iran's main uranium-enrichment complex, located near Isfahan in central Iran.
Iran's main uranium-enrichment complex, located near Isfahan in central Iran. Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center: A key conversion and research facility south of Isfahan city.
Very unusually, the US President claimed that 'fake news' reports upset the pilots who flew the bombs over Iran, by claiming that Iran's nuclear capability was not in fact completely destroyed.
'Secretary of Defense (War!) Pete Hegseth, together with Military Representatives, will be holding a Major News Conference tomorrow morning at 8 A.M. EST at The Pentagon, in order to fight for the Dignity of our Great American Pilots,' Trump posted to Truth Social.
'These Patriots were very upset! After 36 hours of dangerously flying through Enemy Territory, they landed, they knew the Success was LEGENDARY, and then, two days later, they started reading Fake News by CNN and The Failing New York Times. They felt terribly,' he continued.
Hegseth is also expected to address a controversial leaked Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report, first revealed by CNN, which strongly suggested that the US strikes did not destroy Iran's nuclear capability:
Two of the people familiar with the assessment said Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed. One of the people said the centrifuges are largely 'intact.' Another source said that the intelligence assessed enriched uranium was moved out of the sites prior to the US strikes.
'So the (DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,' this person added.
Most recently the CIA has since backed the Trump admin's claims, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Wednesday having sought to clarify in a statement that the agency had obtained 'a body of credible evidence [that] indicates Iran's Nuclear Program has been severely damaged' by recent strikes. But then this too includes somewhat ambiguous language.