Iran's parliament weighs bill to exit nuclear non-proliferation treaty
The measure would abandon the inspections framework that Washington has demanded as the basis for any nuclear deal
Published
Iran's parliament is considering a bill that would pull the country out of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The treaty underpins the inspections regime that Washington has asked Tehran to accept, including a commitment made during talks in Switzerland to let nuclear inspectors back into the country.
The bill arrives against a backdrop of talks that US officials have called positive and constructive, with Trump said to be willing to ease sanctions in exchange for nuclear progress. Iran was reported to have agreed to a halt-for-relief arrangement on uranium enrichment, and a US official has said Trump offered Tehran economic relief, including the unfreezing of Iranian assets, in return for concessions.
Other signals point the other way. A source involved in the negotiations told Al Arabiya a deal is unlikely, citing major gaps between the two sides, and officials in Tehran have said an agreement before the US midterm elections is unlikely. Trump said today that US officials have spoken with mediators and claimed the nuclear threat has already been stopped, that the United States will win the war with Iran "very soon," and that gas prices would fall as a result. He also said inflation would be eradicated once the war ends.
A parliamentary push to leave the treaty is a harder escalation than the rhetoric and stalled talks seen so far, because it targets the treaty framework that any inspections-based deal depends on. It undercuts the access track Washington has demanded and hardens the standoff, reinforcing the risk premium built into crude prices and pointing to a more bearish outlook than the mediated-talks backdrop had suggested.