Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, travelled to Tennessee on Thursday to meet with experts who could play a role in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear-weapons program.
The meeting took place at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
US and Iranian officials are still negotiation the details of a memorandum of understanding to bring the war to an end and begin further talks about the future of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The US and Iran still disagree about a number of details in the memorandum.
The fate of Iran’s enrichment program has been a sticking-point throughout the negotiations, with President Trump insisting that Iran will not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
According to Axios, the meeting at Oak Ridge is a clear sign that the negotiations are “in their final stretch.”
Some of the country’s most important experts in uranium processing and centrifuge technology are based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex.
Nuclear materials and equipment from foreign countries, including Kazakhstan and Libya, have been routed through Oak Ridge in the past.
Sources who spoke to Axios said a team of around 100 experts was recently convened to take part in nuclear negotiations should a deal be reached.
“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 U.S. official said.
Last week, Witkoff and Kushner agreed terms with their Iranian counterparts on a memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire by 60 days, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, allow Iran to begin selling oil again and begin talks on Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and limitations on future enrichment.
There remain disagreements about the length of the ceasefire extension and the unfreezing of Iranian assets worth billions of dollars.
Small-scale clashes continue to take place around the Strait of Hormuz.
On Friday, the US military downed a number of drones and struck radar sites along the Strait.
According to US Central Command (CENTCOM), four Iranian drones that posed a direct threat to maritime traffic were shot down, before strikes were launched against radar installations at Goruk and on Qeshm Island.
In a post on X, CENTCOM said US forces acted in self-defense and remained “vigilant and postured to respond to unjustified Iranian aggression.”
The strikes came in areas where drones were launched this week.
Earlier on Friday, Iran claimed it had fired warning shots at US Navy ships in the Gulf of Oman and forced them to retreat into the Indian Ocean.
That claim was rubbished by CENTCOM.
On Thursday night, the US Navy intercepted a sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean.
The Davina, a supertanker capable of carrying up to two million barrels of crude oil, was placed under US sanctions in 2024 for trading Iranian oil.
7 Responses
Now that the cat is out of the bag, Iran must insist Israel removed its nuclear weapons. Otherwise, this is a non negotiable option.
The last time the spotlight was shone on a group of our nation’s advanced technology experts, they starting dying one by one and are still being plucked off. Be careful out there.
Trumps “negotiating team” are just a collection of family and buddies that do only what he tells them.
look, I know some things that would make yall want to pray for dr quinn medicine lady
instead of Elsa The She Wolf
There is no chance of good results with billionaire zionists Kushner and Witkoff involved. Trump has rigged this for more war, to please Israel.
If Rubio were credible he would threaten to quit unless he runs negotiations.
I bet Witkoff and Kushner are scientifically illiterate. Why in the world would they go to Oak Ridge national labs? It is for show. So, clueless Trump has 2 clueless and corrupt people guiding him. Witkoff has a useless poli sci degree. Kushner has a government degree.
Yall know in WW2, The oak ridge site would only hire people that couldnt read or write, Manhatten Project, they were not the only ones. Top Secrecy,
the people like janitors would just throw the trash away and not haveing trying to read papers, before shredders, plus, a bunch of rude azzz yanks involved