Did US accept Iran's bid to maintain nuclear enrichment? Report makes big claim amid military buildup

US officials have reportedly accepted Iran's red line on continuing uranium enrichment, a new report has claimed, as the two sides remain on the brink of a full-fledged conflict.

After the latest round of US-Iran talks in Geneva, Tehran is still allegedly not prepared to completely stop nuclear enrichment.

However, a diplomat in the know has claimed that the negotiations are focused on the technical components of Iran's atomic programme, such as the location, level, and number of uranium centrifuges, a report from the semi-official Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) said.

The diplomat added that in the event of an agreement with the US, the material used for nuclear enrichment would “certainly be diluted". 

However, the diplomat reiterated that "nuclear material will not be removed from the country". This comes amid Russia's state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, expressing willingness to transfer highly enriched uranium from Iran, subject to Tehran's conditions.

This comes as US President Donald Trump currently mulls over a set of options in front of him to deal with the Iran tensions, one of which is a proposal in which Washington would allow Tehran nuclear enrichment at a "small, token" level—one that leaves no possible path to a bomb, a senior official told Axios.

Another major option presented to Trump weeks ago was the assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his son, Mojtaba, the report added, citing another official.

The unnamed Iranian diplomat's comments in the ISNA report also mirror that of Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi's own claim on Friday that the US had not asked for "zero nuclear enrichment" despite Trump's public statements that said otherwise.

He also insisted in an interview with MS NOW that a diplomatic solution was "at our reach; we can easily achieve [it]", despite speculations that the US, which now commands a large military presence in the region, could attack over the weekend.

Araghchi added that the next step in the talks would be for Iran to submit a written proposal for a deal to US negotiators, after which the two sides could finalise the text of the agreement.