Iran and US talks upbeat despite disagreement over uranium enrichment

Iran and the US have ended a fourth round of talks on a surprisingly upbeat note, despite the two sides appearing far apart on the central issue of a uranium enrichment programme on Iranian soil. US special envoy Steve Witkoff implied the US would never allow Iran to benefit from the peaceful technology of uranium enrichment, saying all its technology must be dismantled and destroyed. Witkoff said on Friday: “An enrichment programme can never exist in the state of Iran again. The difficulty in the US position is that many other countries are allowed to enrich uranium domestically, while Israel has an undeclared nuclear programme. But the US argues Iran’s record of non-disclosure of its nuclear programme and high levels of enrichment make the Tehran regime a special case.