Iran is aiming to tempt Donald Trump with financial incentives, including investments in its vast oil and gas reserves, as part of efforts to convince the US president to agree a deal on its nuclear programme and avoid war.
One person familiar with the matter described the prospect of a “commercial bonanza”, with Tehran seeking to appeal to Trump’s penchant for deals promising a financial dividend for the US.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi will hold another round of indirect talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Geneva on Thursday.
A senior US official said no commercial offer had yet been made to the US. “This was never discussed. President Trump has been clear that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon or the capacity to build one,” the official said.
The prospect of investment opportunities was “specifically directed at Trump, a major economic bonanza in oil and gas and mining rights, critical minerals and all of that”, the person familiar with the matter said.
A second person said there had been discussions on Iran offering US investments in gas and oil but said the proposal had not been formally presented to Washington.
“[Iran is] looking at Venezuela as a case study,” the person said, referring to Trump’s push for US companies to get oil deals in the Latin American country after the US seized Nicolás Maduro last month.
The idea forms part of Iran’s efforts to convince Washington it is serious about a deal and stave off US strikes as it faces mounting pressure from Trump.
It also comes as Iranian officials have threatened to escalate any conflict with the US in the wake of an American attack, indicating they will reconsider their previous doctrine of limiting retaliation.
Trump, who has assembled the biggest military build-up in the Middle East since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, warned Tehran last week it had a “maximum” 15 days to reach a deal or “bad things will happen”.
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump condemned what he called Iran’s “sinister” nuclear ambitions and accused Tehran of “working to build missiles that will soon reach” the US.
“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy,” he said. “But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror, which they are . . . to have a nuclear weapon. Can’t let that happen.”
Iran insists its programme is for civilian purposes, but it was enriching uranium close to weapons grade levels before the US and Israel bombed its nuclear facilities last year.
The people briefed on the talks said Iran was also discussing the possibility of a multinational verification mechanism for its nuclear programme, which could involve a US team or a third country representing it, alongside the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN watchdog.
Araghchi said on Tuesday that Iran “will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon” and would seek a “fair and equitable deal — in the shortest possible time”.
“We have a historic opportunity to strike an unprecedented agreement that addresses mutual concerns and achieves mutual interests,” Araghchi said on X. “A deal is within reach, but only if diplomacy is given priority.”
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei declined to provide details about what Tehran was offering but cited opinion pieces by Araghchi about potential economic co-operation with the US.
“In those articles, Araghchi talks about oil, gas and energy, where we have advantages and need modern technology, and where there is strong capacity,” Baghaei told the FT.
Iran ranked as the planet’s third-largest oil and second-largest gas reserve holder in 2023, according to the US Energy Information Administration. It shares the world’s largest natural gasfield with Qatar.
Hamid Ghanbari, a deputy foreign minister, told Iranian businessmen this month that “common interests in the fields of oil and gas, including joint fields [with neighbouring countries], as well as investments in mining and even the purchase of civilian aircraft, have been included in the talks with the US”.
Ghanbari said that unlike with the 2015 nuclear deal that Tehran signed with the Obama administration and other world powers, it was “necessary for the US to benefit from sectors that offer high and quick returns” to secure a “sustainable agreement”.
Iran briefly opened up to foreign investment after that deal took effect, with Boeing signing a $20bn deal to supply aircraft to Iran Air.
But it collapsed before any aircraft were delivered after Trump abandoned the nuclear accord in 2018 and imposed waves of severe sanctions that cut Iran off from the global financial system and prevented foreign investment.
As part of any new nuclear deal, Iran would want sanctions relief. Ghanbari said Tehran would expect the US to unfreeze its oil money held overseas, amounting to tens of billions of dollars.
The Trump administration and Iran have held two rounds of indirect talks this month, the first since the US briefly joined Israel’s 12-day war against Iran last June. They had held five rounds of negotiations before that conflict.
A longstanding barrier to progress has been whether Iran can keep its ability to enrich uranium. The US has been insisting that Tehran permanently end its capacity to enrich.
Iran has rejected the condition, saying it is its right as a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty. Caving to the demand is considered a red line for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader.
Regional officials, including Turkey’s top diplomat, have told the FT that the Trump administration had signalled it might be flexible, suggesting Iran could be allowed to enrich to token levels if a deal was agreed. Trump administration officials have disputed this.
Araghchi told MSNBC last week that Washington had not asked Tehran to permanently suspend enrichment.
“We have not offered any suspension, and the US side has not asked for zero enrichment,” he said. But Witkoff, Trump’s lead negotiator, said at the weekend that the president’s “red lines” included “zero enrichment” and said Iran would have to hand over its enriched uranium stockpile.
Additional reporting by Abigail Hauslohner in Washington