Mar 27, 2026 15:35 pm IST

Opinion | Have US And Iran Already Gone Past The Point Of 'Negotation'?

Serious negotiations need to be held behind the scenes with as much confidentiality as possible.

Kanwal Sibal Kanwal Sibal Columnist

Kanwal Sibal Columnist

The US has reportedly proposed a 15-point plan to Iran for ending the US-Iran war. Iran has made its own conditions for an agreement known. It is evident that these are maximalist positions on both sides, and any eventual agreement would involve compromises.

But if one side or the other lays out its positions in public through background briefings or in reaction to the proposals aired through the media, it raises suspicions about the seriousness of the negotiation exercise.

Serious negotiations need to be held behind the scenes with as much confidentiality as possible. If the maximalist positions are publicised for whatever reason in advance, then the text of the final agreement will be assessed by the public on the basis of how much either side was forced to make concessions on core issues of difference. The governments concerned will then have to offer explanations. This public diplomacy only complicates the search for a balanced negotiating outcome in actual negotiations.

In May 2025, the US had proposed a 15-point plan, which gives a clue to what the US might be seeking. It promised an end only to nuclear-related sanctions, not all sanctions, including human rights sanctions. The funds released could not be used to fund Iran's ballistic missile programme. All uranium stockpiles would be down-blended to 3.67 % and shipped out of Iran immediately. All enrichment facilities of Iran would be made unusable within a month, and centrifuges would be rendered inoperable. The US would help fund a new Iranian civil nuclear programme with a fuel facility located outside Iran and subject to International Atomic Energy Agency inspection. A regional enrichment consortium would be established involving Iran, the US, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia under external management.

The US wants to ensure that Iran's nuclear programme is not revived, and for that, it would want to have oversight over it beyond that of the IAEA. It wants to carve out a role for itself in Iran's peaceful nuclear programme, as we have........

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