Progress in Iran Talks Undercut Over Uranium, Tolls

President Donald Trump said the US was in the "final stages" with Iran, but also threatened to resume attacks in the coming days if the Islamic Republic didn't agree to his terms. Meanwhile, President Masoud Pezeshkian insisted the country was not on the brink of giving in. Bloomberg's Paul Wallace reports. Bloomberg

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(Bloomberg) — Iran said the latest proposal from the US partly bridged the gap between the warring sides, but comments from the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader about keeping Tehran’s uranium stockpile and a dispute over tolls in the Strait of Hormuz clouded the outlook for a breakthrough. 

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Tehran is in the process of responding to a text submitted by the US, which “has narrowed the gaps to some extent,” the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported on Thursday, without saying where it got the information. “Further narrowing requires an end to the temptation for war on Washington’s part.”

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While that signaled progress, a Reuters report that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued a directive that the country’s near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad initially sent oil prices higher. Then President Donald Trump said he opposed efforts by Iran and Oman to establish some form of permanent toll system through Hormuz. 

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“We want it open, we want it free, we don’t want tolls,” Trump told reporters Thursday at the White House. “It’s an international waterway. They are not charging tolls right now.”

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a toll system would make a deal with the US “unfeasible.” 

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The conflicting statements on key issues left it unclear if the two sides were any closer to a deal after renewed threats of escalation in recent days. 

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Oil prices swung in a wide range on Thursday as traders kept a close watch on whether peace talks would progress. Brent crude prices were down more than 1.5% to trade below $104 a barrel after rising more than 3% earlier in the session.

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Global stockpiles of crude oil and products are being drawn down at a record pace this month, Goldman Sachs said, as the world’s supply buffer rapidly shrinks.

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The US has repeatedly demanded Tehran hand over its enriched uranium — fearing Iran could use it to build an atomic bomb — and commit to ending enrichment for at least a decade. Iranian leaders have balked at those terms in public, and the country’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday “we will never back down” in talks.  

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Trump on Wednesday had warned he may resume attacks soon if Iran didn’t agree to his terms, a threat he has made multiple times since a ceasefire took effect on April 8. “We’ll either have a deal or we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty,” he said. “But hopefully that won’t happen.”

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The outlook had appeared more positive after that, when Iran suggested differences were narrowing with the US over a 14-point text from several weeks ago. That proposal essentially suggested a short-term deal that would see Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz and the US lift a blockade of Iranian ports, with the warring sides then going into deeper negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program.

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Iran gave no indication of when it would formally answer the US. The Iranian foreign ministry reiterated it wants a commitment that fighting will end “on all fronts, including Lebanon.” It also called for the unfreezing of sanctioned assets.