At AIPAC Event, Trump Envoy Witkoff Calls for Permanent Iran Nuclear Restrictions as Geneva Talks Stall Over Enrichment and Escalating U.S. Pressure

White House envoy Steve Witkoff is telling allies the Trump administration wants any Iran nuclear agreement to last indefinitely, with no “sunset” clauses that expire over time. The demand is landing as the next Geneva round approaches, with Witkoff and Jared Kushner expected to sit with Iran’s lead negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, to review a detailed Iranian proposal.

The “no sunset” push is meant to fix what Trump and other critics long argued was a core weakness of the 2015 deal: major constraints on Iran’s nuclear program phased out over an 8–25 year timeline. In Witkoff’s framing, the baseline is permanent compliance, “you have to behave for the rest of your lives,” Axios reports he told a private gathering of AIPAC donors.

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Witkoff said the immediate talks center on Iran’s ability to enrich uranium and what happens to its existing enriched uranium stockpile, while U.S. officials have floated the idea of allowing tightly constrained “token” enrichment if Iran can prove it cannot be leveraged toward a bomb. Iran, for its part, is publicly insisting that domestic enrichment remains a red line, even as it signals it wants a deal to avert war.

Trump has publicly put Tehran on a roughly 10–15 day window to reach an agreement, as the U.S. builds up military capability in the region and openly weighs a strike path if diplomacy fails. Reuters has also reported U.S. planning for potentially weeks-long operations if an attack is ordered, an indicator that Washington is preparing for more than a one-night exchange.