US envoy Witkoff says new Iran deal must be a two-way street
"The (JCPOA) was fundamentally flawed because the sanctions sunset, and yet the mandate as to how you're supposed to conduct yourself - not enriching, not weaponizing - that did not sunset," US envoy Steve Witkoff told the Cats and Cosby radio show referring to a 2015 nuclear deal from which President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.
"So you and I both know, in business, one-way options don't make sense. They're not fair, and that was a one-way option for the Iranians, and it's got to be rectified," Witkoff told interviewers John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby.
Some containers of imported goods arriving at the Rajai port lack standard codes and numbering, Iran's minister of labor said on Wednesday.
Tehran has put a ban on Iranian media covering last week's explosion at the Persian Gulf port where a huge blast killed at least 70 people and injured more than 1,000, according to official stats.
“What is clear is that this issue of enrichment is key, is central to the agreement. And below that, you have a number of alternatives which they are discussing," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said in an interview with U.S. News and World Report.
"I don't think they are looking at a JCPOA by any other name," Grossi added. “It would be something perhaps less sophisticated ... It's something bold, it’s something clear, it’s something straight that will give everybody the assurance that there is no path to a bomb.”
Grossi added that the talks appeared to be progressing.
"This process is gaining momentum, is gaining traction. The conversations are getting more to some technical details, because, of course, this is like an incremental process. It's a conversation."
Outspoken Iran hawk senator Ted Cruz and a controversial former nuclear negotiator and senior Iranian diplomat turned Princeton academic Seyed Hossein Mousavian have gotten into an online tussle after the Texas lawmaker called for his deportation.
"Dear Senator Ted Cruz, Yesterday, April 28, in your interview with Fox News, you called for my dismissal from Princeton University and made baseless accusations," Mousavian wrote on X.
"I invite you to a public debate so that, while hearing responses to these claims, we can leave the judgment to the American people," he added.
Short of a meeting, Mousavian recommended Cruz read his books, emphasized he supports President Donald Trump's push for an Iranian nuclear deal and said a prison sentence means he cannot return to Iran.
Cruz was unmoved by the invitation and torched Mousavian in a curt reply.
"I try not to be in the room with people linked to Iranian terrorists who have murdered dozens of dissidents."
"Your books are unreadable, and the only debate you should be having is with DHS agents, at the end of which you should be deported," the senator added, referring to the US Department of Homeland Security.
Mousavian was ambassador to Germany when Bonn-based Iranian exile Fereydoun Farrokhzad, an singer and outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic, was murdered in 1992 apparently by agents of the Islamic Republic.
A veteran Iranian commander in March detailed the state's role in his killing, in remarks Mousavian said left him "stunned, amazed, and shocked."
In 2023, several top Republicans, including House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky and now-DOGE chairman Aaron Bean of Florida, wrote to Princeton with their concerns about Mousavian's tenure.
Several Republican lawmakers wrote an open letter to Princeton in 2023 expressing their concerns over Mousavian's employment.
"A German court found (the Iranian embassy in Germany) served as the headquarters for the planning of the 1992 assassination of four Iranian dissidents," the letter said, referring to the 1994 assassination of four Iranian-Kurdish dissidents in a Berlin restaurant.
"Did Princeton consult with US government officials regarding the hiring of Mousavian?"
The US state department and treasury on Wednesday levied more sanctions targeting Iranian petrochemical products even as Washington and Tehran are set for the fourth round of nuclear talks on Saturday.
"The Iranian regime continues to fuel conflict in the Middle East, advance its nuclear program, and support its terrorist partners and proxies," the state department said in a statement.
"Today, the United States is taking action to stem the flow of revenue that the regime uses to fund these destabilizing activities."
The move blacklisted four UAE-based firms accused of selling Iranian petrochemicals and one Turkey-based importer, which the state department said have together generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Iran.
An Iran-based cargo inspection company and a UAE-based marine management company and two vessels it runs were also designated.
Iran’s national security chief Ali Akbar Ahmadian said on Wednesday that Tehran will not relinquish its right to peaceful use of nuclear energy.
"Iran will not forgo its legitimate rights, including the right to peaceful use of nuclear energy," he told a BRICS summit in Brazil on Wednesday, ahead of talks with the United States this weekend.
“Nuclear weapons have no place in Iran’s defensive doctrine, and the evidence for this lies in reports by international monitoring bodies."
