Iran Says U.S. Has Not Asked It to Stop Enriching Uranium

The comments by Iran’s foreign minister on Friday contradicted the Trump administration’s position.Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of Iran, at the United Nations office in Geneva. The United States and Iran have been in Switzerland negotiating a nuclear deal this week.Credit...Martial Trezzini/Keystone, via Associated PressFeb. 20, 2026, 12:03 p.m. ETThe United States did not ask Iran to stop enriching uranium in talks over a nuclear deal held in Switzerland this week, Iran’s foreign minister said on Friday, contradicting Washington’s public position.“They have not offered any suspension, and the U.S. side has not asked for zero enrichment,” the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said in an interview on the MS NOW show “Morning Joe.” He said Iran was developing “confidence-building measures” to assure the United States that the nuclear program is peaceful, but was vague about what those measures were.President Trump has repeatedly demanded that Iran give up its nuclear program, including by agreeing not to enrich any more uranium. Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy, has portrayed Iran’s enrichment capability an absolute “red line,” because it would keep the door open for the development of nuclear weapons.A White House official contested Mr. Araghchi’s assessment of the U.S. negotiation terms, saying Mr. Trump had been clear that Iran could not have the capacity to enrich uranium or build nuclear weapons. On Friday, Mr. Trump told reporters he was considering a limited military strike.The amount of enrichment Washington is willing to allow has been a point of contention in yearslong efforts to contain Iran’s nuclear program. Uranium enriched to low levels can be developed into weapons within months, depending on Tehran’s centrifuge capacity, according to the Institute for Science and International Security, a think tank in Washington that studies nuclear weapons programs.Iranian and U.S. officials indirectly held discussions through Omani diplomats earlier this week in Geneva. Three Iranian officials familiar with the talks told The New York Times that Iran had indicated a willingness to suspend nuclear enrichment for three to five years, covering Mr. Trump’s presidency, and later join a regional group for civilian grade enrichment. In exchange, Iran has demanded that the United States lift financial and banking sanctions as well as the embargo on its oil.Officials on both sides signaled that some progress had been made after the negotiations. The discussions ended with an agreement over “guidelines” for the talks and each side preparing to exchange drafts on a potential deal. It is not clear when the next round of negotiations will be held.In the interview on Friday, Mr. Araghchi said he hoped to present a draft to U.S. negotiators “in the next two, three days.”Mr. Araghchi said that diplomacy was the “only solution” for Iran, adding that he believed Mr. Trump was interested in a “quick deal.” In recent weeks, the U.S. military has built up forces close to Iran, enabling the United States to take military action as soon as this weekend, Trump administration and Pentagon officials said.Mr. Trump has said that “bad things” could happen if Iran does not agree to a deal within the next 10 days. But another strike, eight months after a 12-day war in which Israel and the United States hit military and nuclear sites across Iran, could run the risk of Iranian retaliation.Pranav Baskar is an international reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.SKIP