What is Iran’s nuclear program and what does the United States and Israel want?

The United States and Iran are expected to keep the first talks for years on Saturday to try to conclude a new controversial nuclear program agreement in Iran.

Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a previous nuclear agreement between Iran and the global powers in 2018 and restored economic sanctions, angry with Iran.

Trump warned against military action if the talks do not succeed.

Iran says that its nuclear program is only for civil purposes.

He insists that he does not try to develop nuclear weapons, but many countries – as well as the global nuclear guard dog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – are not convinced.

The suspicions of Iran’s intentions occurred when the country turned out to have secret nuclear installations in 2002.

This broke an agreement called Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (TNP), which Iran and almost all other countries have signed.

TNP allows countries to use non -military nuclear technology – as for medicine, agriculture and energy – but does not allow the development of nuclear weapons.

Since the United States has withdrawn from the existing nuclear agreement – known as the Complete Complete Action Plan or JCPOA – In 2018, Iran violated key commitments, in retaliation for the decision to restore sanctions.

He installed thousands of advanced centrifuges (purification machines) to enrich uranium, which was prohibited by JCPOA.

Nuclear weapons require uranium which has been enriched at 90% purity. As part of the JCPOA, Iran has been authorized to have only up to 300 kg (600 lb) of uranium enriched at 3.67% – sufficient for civilian nuclear purposes and for research purposes but not nuclear bombs.

But in March 2025, the IAEA said that Iran had around 275 kg of uranium which it had enriched at 60% purity. This is enough to theoretically about half a dozen weapons, if Iran still enriches uranium.

US officials said they believed that Iran could transform this uranium into enough weapon quality materials for a bomb as little as a week. However, they also declared that Iran would take between one year at 18 months to build a nuclear weapon. Some experts say that a “gross” device could be built in six months or less.

The UN, the United States and the EU imposed large economic sanctions on Iran from 2010, on suspicions that its nuclear program was used to develop a bomb.

The sanctions prevented Iran from selling oil on international markets and frozen $ 100 billion (77 billion pounds sterling) of the country’s foreign assets. Its economy plunged into the recession and the value of its currency fell to record stockings, which increased inflation.

In 2015, Iran and six world powers – the United States, China, France, Russia, Germany and the United Kingdom – accepted JCPOA after years of negotiations.

In addition to limiting what Iran was authorized to do with its nuclear program, it allowed the IAEA to access all the nuclear installations of Iran and to carry out inspections of the suspect sites.

In return, the powers have agreed to remove the sanctions.

The JCPOA was to last up to 15 years, after which the restrictions would expire.

When Donald Trump took office in 2018, he withdrew the United States – which had been a key pillar from the agreement.

He said it was a “bad deal” because it was not permanent and did not address the Iran’s ballistic missile program, among others. Trump reproduced American sanctions as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign to force Iran to negotiate a new extended agreement.

Trump’s decision was influenced by the American regional allies who were opposed to the agreement, mainly Israel.

Israel said Iran was still pursuing a secret nuclear program and warned that Iran would use billions of dollars in sanctions to strengthen its military activities.

Trump’s announcement on talks with Iran seemed to take Israel by surprise. He had long said that he would materialize a “better” agreement than the JCPOA, although so far, Iran has rejected the renegotiation of the agreement.

Trump previously warned that if Iran had not concluded a new agreement “there will be bombings”.

His national security advisor Mike Waltz said Trump wanted the “complete dismantling” of the Iranian nuclear program, adding: “It is an enrichment, that is to say weapons, and it is its strategic missile program.”

Although Trump said there would be “direct talks”, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said negotiations in Oman are indirect. He said Iran was ready to get involved with the United States, but Trump must first agree that there can be no “military option”.

After Trump’s announcement, Prime Minister Israel Benjamin Netanyahu said the only acceptable agreement would imply that Iran accepts to eliminate his nuclear program. He said it meant: “We enter, explode the installations and denantalize all the equipment, under American supervision and execution.”

The greatest fear of Israel will be that Trump accepts a short compromise of Iran’s full capitulation that he could present as a diplomatic victory.

Israel, which has not signed the TNP, is supposed to have nuclear weapons, which it does not confirm or denies. He thinks that Iran with nuclear arms, which does not accept the right of Israel, existed, would represent a substantial threat.

The United States and Israel both have the military capacities to bomb Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, but such an operation would be complex and risky, with an uncertain result.

The key nuclear sites are buried deep underground, which means that only the most powerful bunker bombs could reach them. While the United States has these bombs, Israel is not known.

Iran would almost certainly defend itself, which could include attacking American assets in the region and drawing missiles on Israel.

For an operation of this type, the United States should probably use its bases in the Gulf, as well as aircraft carriers.

But countries like Qatar, which welcome the largest American air base, may not agree to help it attack Iran, fearing reprisals.