The key sticking point is Iran's conventional ballistic missile arsenal. Israel wants complete disarmament or at least a monitored reduction in range. So far, Israel is represents the hard line position, which has clearly influenced some officials in the Trump administration.

The AFP has newly published the below infographic:

© Agence France-Presse

But amid the military and political pressure, Iran is not going to give up the one thing it considers its first line of defense: the ability to hit back in the event of an Israel-US attack.

[...]

As for where diplomacy stands, Iranian analyst and long time observer of Iran's nuclear dossier, Hassan Beheshti-Pour, says that the real substance "lies in the technical options quietly circulating, not in public rhetoric". Among these options:

• a temporary and voluntary suspension of enrichment, not dismantlement;
• a freeze-for-freeze mechanism pairing enrichment pauses with sanctions suspension and even the idea of a multinational nuclear fuel bank (Russia, Kazakhstan, or elsewhere) to guarantee supply while addressing proliferation concerns.
• Beheshti-Pour also points to broader confidence building frameworks, including regional security arrangements aimed at reducing the rationale for external military pressure.

As we detailed earlier, Iran is offering to dilute its enriched uranium if Washington agrees to remove all sanctions on the country.

This week the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, is strongly signaling Tehran is ready to play ball, even if it is on Washington's terms - and after a history of the US side breaking its word (starting with the first Trump admin's unilateral pullout from the JCPOA nuclear deal).

"The possibility of diluting 60% enriched uranium... depends on whether, in return, all sanctions are lifted or not," Eslami made clear.

All of this stems from last month's very bloody protests and riots inside Iran, largely the result of the stranglehold that US sanctions have on the population. The White House since then has threatened regime change and dialed up the sanctions.

Upon returning to Britain, Sir Keir wrote in his Substack blog that over the course of the visit, he "welcomed £2.2billion in export deals, around £2.3 billion in market access wins over five years, and hundreds of millions worth of new investments".

Sceptical about these trade wins, think tank Facts4EU and Stand for Our Sovereignty (SOS) crunched the numbers and found that they do not hold much weight. As the report shows, China's large trade surplus with Britain dwarfs any gains from these trade deals.

In a previous report, The People's Channel showed how the cumulative surplus in goods trade, which Sir Keir has built with China since being elected, is over £75billion, excluding the effects of inflation. The latest deep-dive further undermines these vaunted trade deals.

In his Substack piece, the Prime Minister claims "a win is a five-year forecast of the export value as part of the deal". However, as the report's authors point out, no business can forecast export sales five years in advance. Yet this is how the PM is presenting the results of his China visit.

"Not on export sales at all, but on some wishful thinking they might materialise in the first place, and then a "guestimate" of what they might total over a five-year period," the authors write, adding: "There isn't any business in the country that would count these 'deals' in their official sets of accounts."

The report also skewers the list of export deals the PM reeled off during his visit.

"Glasgow Prestwick Airport has announced £76million in exports from expanded direct cargo services to China" - On September 1 last year, the airport revealed it was opening new services to China to cater for exports of Scottish salmon. The value of these salmon exports totaled £76 million, suggesting this was not a new deal.

"World Snooker has announced a £15million five-year agreement, including a new major event in two Chinese cities" - World Snooker is already well-established in China, across six venues, and is a very popular sport. The current World Champion is Chinese.

"Cultech has announced a new partnership with China Resources, expected to deliver up to £90million in exports over five years and create 55 jobs in Port Talbot" - The report suggests this appears to be a distribution agreement, but there are no details on the company's website and "expected to" is not the same as firm orders.

"Gallant has announced the launch of Outwall in China, serving British touring artists, projected to generate over £10million in revenue over five years" - Already established well before the PM's visit, Outwall is a joint venture with the Chinese company Showstart, which mostly deals with merchandising, all of which appears to have to be made in China. This Chinese company Showstart handle all the sales, including ticket sales.

"Birmingham Biotech has announced plans to scale its biobarrier platform in China, securing £20million in projected UK exports" - these are "projected exports".

"Silverstream Technologies, a UK-based leader in ship air lubrication technology, has collaborated with 13 major Chinese shipyards and partners, supported the installation of our Silverstream Systems on both newbuilds and retrofits, and achieved export revenue in excess of £50m in 2025" - A success story, but seemingly not one of Sir Keir's making.

They were not announcing new orders, as the last ones were received in December.

"The PM came away from China with almost nothing, claiming even fewer exports than the Chancellor on her unsuccessful trip."

"The administration last year hired Kurt Olsen, who more than five years ago took part in the "Stop the Steal" campaign that promoted baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, to investigate the 2020 election." -NBC News

President Donald Trump has directed top U.S. spy agencies to share sensitive intelligence about the 2020 election with his former campaign lawyer, known for pushing debunked theories of electoral fraud, according to four people with knowledge of the effort. -Politico

The decision to provide some of the government's most sensitive spy material to Olsen is unusual, given that he has no known experience working with the U.S. spy community and only joined the Trump administration as a short-term special government employee in October 2025. Special government employees are supposed to work no more than 130 days during any period of 365 days, suggesting his time at the White House could end soon.

The first person said that Olsen has passed a background check and a polygraph exam. It is not clear how close Olsen is to completing his report on the 2020 elections.

Intelligence analysis is supposed to be nonpartisan, and it appears Olsen's views on electoral fraud in prior U.S. elections are so deeply held that even some people close to the president question his ability to evaluate the material shared with him.

"This guy has no background" in intelligence, said the second person, a close Trump ally. Olsen "will find some super classified report, say it's evidence of fraud, but really it's just completely out of context."

...

Olsen rose to prominence by working closely with Trump to undermine the results of the 2020 election under the slogan "Stop the Steal." He urged several DOJ officials that year to file a complaint to the Supreme Court scrutinizing Trump's loss, and even called the president multiple times during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol