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The 15-point framework plan for peace with Iran that Donald Trump has said is being discussed is based on a proposal put forward by his negotiating team during nuclear talks almost a year ago, diplomats with knowledge of the talks believe.
That original 15-point plan was the basis for negotiations in late May 2025, shortly before the talks collapsed due to Israeli airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear programme.
There has been much speculation as to what Trump’s latest claimed plan contains, and how much of it has been updated from the now outdated document the US presented to the Iranians last May.
The fact that the plan may largely be a rehash of something that Iran did not accept a year ago suggests either a lack of US seriousness about the talks being planned for this week, or more likely a desire by Trump, for whatever reason, to pretend on Monday he had made more progress towards a deal than in reality he had.
The Iranians accused Trump of trying to calm the US markets before they opened by saying he was not going ahead with his threatened attack on Iran’s energy infrastructure on Monday night. He said he was postponing the strikes for five days to give time to see if “15 points of agreement” could be reached.
The US president claimed “very good and productive” conversations had led to progress over the previous two days. Iran denied there had been any backchannel talks save indirect discussions about reviving talks.
Some of the US’s 15 points drafted in 2025 might be regarded as out of date since there have been three further rounds of talks subsequently in 2026, while Iran’s nuclear programme, especially its key uranium enrichment sites, has been obliterated by US bombing.
Some diplomats close to the talks said they did not believe a radically different new US document existed, and even if the US was working on such a plan, it has not yet been shown to the Iranians, let alone secured their agreement.
The May 2025 15-point plan, described by the US as a term sheet, was a plan put forward unilaterally by the US side containing a large number of proposals that Iran would find difficult to accept, including restrictions applied to Iran’s use of the money released by sanctions. The plan promised to end only nuclear-related sanctions as opposed to all sanctions including human rights sanctions.
The money released by sanctions being lifted could not be used to fund its ballistic missile programme, the US proposed. The plan proposed all uranium stockpiles would be shipped out of Iran immediately as well as down-blended to 3,67%. All its enrichment facilities would be made unusable within a month and centrifuges would be rendered inoperable. The US would help fund a new Iranian civil nuclear programme with a fuel farm outside Iran and subject to inspection by the UN watchdog.
A regional enrichment consortium would be established involving Iran, the US, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The consortium could have an outside manager
Iran, in any new talks probably overseen by Pakistan and held in Islamabad, would likely seek that the discussions focus on some kind of hard to deliver undertaking that the US will not mount further military attacks on Iran.
The issue of freedom of navigation along the strait of Hormuz would also have to be addressed by Iran. The Gulf states will also be looking for some kind of guarantees from Iran through a non-aggression pact.
As a result, it is likely any deal will be even harder to strike than the previous US-Iran talks since the number of issues have spiralled well beyond simply Iran’s nuclear programme, the chief focus of the 15-point plan. The Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, confirmed Pakistan’s offer of talks on Tuesday, and there were hopes that JD Vance would attend, a presence that would go some way to assuage Iran since he is seen as a sceptic about the war.
The splits between the US and the rest of the G7 industrialised nations about the wisdom of launching the attack on Iran will be laid bare on Thursday and Friday at a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Paris.
Due to be attended by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the Iran war is due to be discussed on Friday lunchtime, but France, Germany, Italy, UK, Canada and Japan have all said that they do not support what they regard as an unlawful and unnecessary war.
The six countries all stress they are acting to help defend Gulf allies, national interests in the region and promote freedom of navigation in the strait of Hormuz, but that an intervention that could only occur after there is a ceasefire.
