Media: The White House is debating a "freeze for freeze" nuclear agreement with Iran

The Biden administration is discussing a potential deal that would see Iran halt progress on parts of its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. According to Axios, the US proposal would see Iran halt uranium enrichment at 60% purity in exchange for the lifting of some Western sanctions on its economy. Iran denies that it is seeking a nuclear weapon, and the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran responded to the IAEA by insisting that it is not attempting to enrich beyond 60%. The US proposal has been rejected by Iran, as officials in Tehran reportedly don't want to sign an agreement with worse terms than the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The most important details in this text are that Iran has agreed to strict oversight of its nuclear program in exchange for relief from US and UN sanctions.

Former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018, claiming that Iran was not in compliance, and economic sanctions were reimposed. No Israeli officials commented on the story, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in February that Israel favors economic sanctions coupled with a “credible military threat” when dealing with the Islamic Republic. Netanyahu has claimed for years that Iran is on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon, and Israel was reportedly behind a drone attack on a military site in the Iranian city of Isfahan in February. Israel officially refuses to confirm or deny the existence of its nuclear weapons program, but it is widely understood to have possessed nuclear warheads since the late 1960s.