Axios: Iran eyes interim nuclear deal as Trump’s deadline looms

Iran is weighing the possibility of proposing an interim nuclear agreement with the United States as a precursor to negotiating a comprehensive deal, according to a European diplomat and a source familiar with the matter who spoke to Axios.

The idea, they said, is to gain more time and reduce the risk of a dangerous escalation, given the looming two-month deadline set by President Trump for nuclear talks and his simultaneous decision to bolster US military forces in the Middle East as a backup plan.

Trump has made clear that if a new deal is not reached within that window, he may order a US military strike on Iran’s nuclear sites or support an Israeli operation instead. But Iranian officials reportedly believe it would be impossible to finalize a complex and highly technical agreement within two months, making an interim solution a more feasible approach.

"The Iranians seem to believe that a sustainable deal is unlikely to be achieved in the timeframe that President Trump has in mind. It might therefore be necessary to consider an interim agreement as a way station toward a final deal," said Ali Vaez, director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group.

An interim arrangement could include Iran freezing some of its uranium enrichment activities, diluting its 60% enriched uranium stockpile, and granting UN inspectors expanded access to nuclear facilities. While experts say these steps would only marginally lengthen the time Iran would need to build a nuclear bomb, such concessions could help foster trust in the broader negotiation process.

This temporary deal might also involve extending the “snapback” mechanism — a key element of the 2015 nuclear accord — which allows UN Security Council sanctions to automatically reimpose if Iran breaches its commitments. That mechanism is currently set to expire in October. France, the UK, and Germany have warned Iran that they plan to trigger the snapback of sanctions themselves if a new agreement isn’t reached by the end of June.

However, an interim agreement would likely come with a key demand from Tehran: a suspension of Trump’s “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign targeting Iran’s economy. It remains uncertain whether the Trump administration would be willing to roll back any sanctions, especially in light of the two fresh rounds of penalties it imposed just this week on Iranian companies and individuals linked to the nuclear and oil sectors.

Any Iranian overture toward an interim deal could also feed into Washington’s suspicions that Iran is merely trying to buy time without truly scaling back its nuclear activities.

Further complicating matters, White House envoy Steve Witkoff is set to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Oman on April 12. While US officials insist these will be direct talks, Tehran maintains they will take place through Omani mediators.

Speaking from the Oval Office on April 9, Trump told reporters, “There is a little time ... but not much time” for diplomacy to work. “When you start talks, you know pretty quickly whether they're going well or not. So the conclusion would be — when I feel they're not going well.” Reaffirming his position, Trump added that his primary demand is for Iran to never acquire a nuclear weapon. “But if it requires military, we're going to have military. Israel will obviously be very involved in that — maybe even lead it. But nobody leads us. We do what we want to do.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s former national security council chief, Ali Shamkhani, now a senior foreign policy adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, warned on April 10 that continued military threats could provoke retaliatory moves. These could include expelling International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, halting cooperation with the nuclear watchdog, and transferring enriched materials to undisclosed locations not monitored by the UN.

By Tamilla Hasanova