US President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have met with a team of nuclear experts at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee for consultations regarding a potential agreement with Iran.
The move signals that negotiations between Washington and Tehran have entered a serious stage as Trump suggested that only the US and China can retrieve Iran’s highly enriched uranium.
Nuclear Discussions
Witkoff and Kushner on Thursday made an unannounced visit to the national lab in Oak Ridge – the historical hub for processing uranium and handling intercepted nuclear components, Axios and Reuters reported about the visit.
Trump’s envoys held consultations with a team of technical experts that could play a role in nuclear negotiations with Iran amid US efforts to reach a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tehran to end the war and begin in-depth nuclear talks.
“This meeting in Oak Ridge doesn’t mean that a deal is going to happen, but it is a sign that the negotiations are in a very serious phase and that there is a good chance to get it done and we want to be prepared,” a US official told Axios.
Experts Team
Washington has formed a team of around 100 experts to ensure readiness for participating in nuclear negotiations should the US and Iran reach a preliminary deal. If progress is made, the team of experts will develop a plan to dispose of Iran’s nuclear material, further cap its enrichment program, and verify compliance.
Some of the team’s members took part in retrieving enriched uranium from Venezuela last month, while others participated in the pre-war nuclear negotiations with Iran in Oman. “These are the top nuclear experts in the US who know how to do the technical things that a deal with Iran will entail,” a US official told Axios.
Potential Deal
US and Iranian negotiators reached an agreement on the terms of a 60-day MoU that extends the ceasefire, reopens the Strait of Hormuz, allows Iran to sell oil and launches talks on Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile and limitations on future enrichment.
However, Trump asked for amendments related to the Strait of Hormuz and the removal of Iran’s highly enriched uranium. The US sent the edited proposal to Tehran and is waiting for its official response.
Sources told Axios that the gaps are relatively narrow. The US wants Iran’s uranium stockpile neutralized in 60 days, but Iran wants 90. Additionally, while Tehran is demanding the immediate release of frozen billions, Washington refuses to hand over any funds until concrete steps are taken toward implementing the deal.
Iranian Funds Deadlock
Iranian Supreme Leader’s Military Advisor, Mohsen Rezaei, said that the deal with the US is deadlocked over the release of $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets. “The negotiations are at a deadlock and Trump must break this deadlock. The ball is in Trump’s court,” he said during an interview with CNN.
Despite noting that “the possibility of war is low,” Rezaei threatened that Iran will expand the war beyond the Gulf if the US resumes the conflict.
“We will give another dimension to the war by attacking these other American bases,” he noted, referring to expanding military operations to the Indian Ocean, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
Iran’s Uranium Stockpile
Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is one of the main sticking points in the ongoing talks to reach a peace deal with the US. According to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimates, Iran possesses more than 440 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium – a technical hairsbreadth from the 90% weapons-grade purity.
The US, Israel and Western States have long accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon. However, Tehran maintains that its program is for civilian purposes only and insists it has the right to enrich uranium.
Recovering Enriched Uranium
Trump bombed Iran’s key three nuclear facilities – Natanz, Fordo, and Isfahan – in June 2025, and it remains unclear how much of the stockpile has survived the attack.
Trump has vowed to get Iran’s “nuclear dust,” referring to enriched uranium, insisting that any final peace deal must mandate the removal of Iran’s weapon-grade uranium stockpile from the country.
Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said that that only the US and China can retrieve enriched uranium from Iran’s buried nuclear sites.
“We attacked their nuclear sites and they were obliterated,” he said, adding that recovering anything from Iranian nuclear facilities was very difficult due to the damage caused by the strikes.
“But the only ones that have the capability of getting it out are us and China,” Trump noted.
