The Trump administration’s last-ditch effort to salvage negotiations with Tehran has imploded, sources confirm, leaving Britain and its European allies scrambling to contain a spiralling nuclear crisis. The collapse came after a secret meeting in Geneva between US envoy Robert Malley and Iranian negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani ended abruptly on Tuesday, with Malley walking out after Tehran refused to freeze uranium enrichment above 60 per cent purity, a threshold scientists describe as a technical step away from weapons-grade fuel. Documents obtained by this paper reveal that the US had demanded a complete halt to enrichment at the Fordow and Natanz facilities, monitored by IAEA inspectors, but Iran countered with a proposal to reduce enrichment to 20 per cent only if sanctions on its oil exports are lifted within 60 days.
The talks broke down when the US side rejected the timeframe as a delaying tactic. A senior UK Foreign Office official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that London has now activated its own contingency plans, including a classified diplomatic backchannel to Tehran that bypasses Washington. “The Americans have lost leverage.
The clock isn’t ticking anymore. It’s already alarm bells,” the official said. The crisis deepens as IAEA inspectors report that Iran has installed advanced IR-6 centrifuges at an underground site near Isfahan, capable of accelerating enrichment times.
The agency’s latest quarterly report, leaked to this paper, notes that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile has grown to 4,500 kilograms, enough for multiple warheads. The UK’s Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, is expected to convene an emergency meeting of the E3 (Britain, France, Germany) in Berlin next week, aiming to present a unified European stance before the United Nations Security Council. But insiders admit that the collapse of US talks has emboldened hardliners in Tehran, who now see a divided West.
The unaccountable power of the Revolutionary Guards, who control Iran’s nuclear program, remains the wild card. One British intelligence source, with a weary tone, summed it up: “We are back to brinkmanship, but with less room for error. The Americans have left the table, and we are now playing with matches near a powder keg.
