Iran rejects demand from US to rely on imported uranium

If Washington sticks to the position taken by Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, in the third round of talks in Oman on Saturday, the two sides will have hit their first major negotiating hurdle. They are trying to reach an agreement that blocks off Iran’s access to a nuclear bomb in return for relief from economic sanctions. The Rubio plan is an attempt at compromise between those inside the US administration who say the only certain way to close off Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb is to dismantle its entire nuclear programme and those that say Iran should be allowed to enrich low purity uranium subject to a full external inspection. That proposal is similar to the system set up in the 2015 nuclear deal from which Donald Trump withdrew the US in his first term (Read more at Guardian).