Iran Offers Investment Fig Leaf as Trump Threatens Action over Nuclear Deal
April 10, 2025
ByAlex Kimani– Apr 10, 2025, 7:00 PM CDT
- Iranian President Pezeshkian invited U.S. investors to the country, reiterating that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons.
- The IAEA raised concerns over Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
- The Trump administration has restored “maximum pressure” in a bid to eliminate its oil export revenue in order to slow Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has welcomed U.S. investors to his country and reiterated that his country is not pursuing nuclear weapons, a day after the Trump administration sanctioned five entities and one individual for supporting key entities managing and overseeing Iran’s nuclear program.
“I meet the supreme leader [Ali Al Khamenei] several times each week. He has no objection to American investors in the country,” Mr Pezeshkian said at a ceremony marking National Nuclear Technology Day. “Let them come and invest – but we oppose plotting, regime change efforts, and destructive policies. Iran is not a place for conspiracies or espionage followed by assassinations. Investors are welcome to invest in our country,” he added.
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On Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country is “ready to engage in earnest” to seal a deal, but described “a significant wall of mistrust” between the two countries. Top Iranian officials have been debating whether Tehran should rethink its regional strategy, including cutting back support for armed militant groups.
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran remain high, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently denouncing Iran’s “reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons” as a “menace to regional stability”.
Previously, Trump said he would “prefer” a new nuclear accord, but Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled out talks with Washington at a time when it has intensified its maximum pressure strategy on the Islamic Republic. The Islamic Republic began enriching uranium close to the level needed for nuclear bombs in 2021, three years after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the JCPOA nuclear deal of 2015.
The Trump administration has restored “maximum pressure” in a bid to eliminate its oil export revenue in order to slow Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Back in February, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched close to weapon-grade level has increased more than 50% over the past couple of months. Iran ramped up production of uranium enriched to 60% levels of purity since November in defiance to being censured by the IAEA.
That material can quickly be upgraded to weapon-grade levels, a concern long held by the US, Europe and Israel despite Iran’s repeated denials that its nuclear development is for military use. According to the IAEA, as of Feb. 8, Iran had 274.8 kilograms (605.8 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%, an increase of 92.5 kilograms (203.9 pounds) since the IAEA’s last report in November.
“The significantly increased production and accumulation of high enriched uranium by Iran, the only non-nuclear weapon state to produce such material, is of serious concern,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi wrote in the 14-page report seen by Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, Iran’s oil exports are expected to decline after a raft of sanctions both by the Biden and Trump administrations. The Trump administration imposed further sanctions on more than 30 people and vessels for selling and transporting Iranian petroleum-related products as part of the country’s”shadow fleet”. The growing number of oil tankers sanctioned by the United States has been limiting the availability for Iran to ship its crude.
“There are only a number of tankers on the market willing to take high-risk sanctioned oil and now Iran needs to compete with Russia and Venezuela to secure them,” Muyu Xu, a senior crude oil analyst at Kpler said.
Iran mainly uses subterfuge to transport its crude. Last month, Iraq’s oil minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani reported that Iranian oil tankers seized by U.S. forces in the Gulf were using forged Iraqi documents,
“We received some verbal inquiries about oil tankers being detained in the Gulf by U.S. naval forces carrying Iraqi shipping manifests,” the oil minister said on state television late on Sunday.
“It turned out that these tankers were Iranian … and were using forged Iraqi documents. We explained this to the relevant authorities with complete transparency and they also confirmed this.”
Iran’s oil exports saw a strong rebound under the Biden administration with the U.S. and its allies hoping to strike a new nuclear deal with Tehran after Trump scuttled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal of 2015.
Under the former Trump administration, Iranian oil production tumbled from 3.8 million barrels per day in early 2018 to less than 2 mb/d in late 2020; in contrast, production rebounded under Biden to 3.2 mb/d. China is Iran’s biggest customer, with Iranian crude accounting for 13% of its imports.
By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com
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