The U.S. Offered to Sell Iran Uranium. Iran Says It’s Ready for a “Doomsday War.” The Ceasefire Talks Just Collapsed.
Sunday, September 27, 2026. On the same NBC “Meet the Press” broadcast, two men gave America a clear picture of how far apart Washington and Tehran now are. Trump’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz revealed that American negotiators had offered to sell Iran uranium for a civilian nuclear program — and that Iran turned it down along with the rest of a ceasefire framework President Trump rejected on Saturday. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran is “fully prepared for the war to be resumed,” and will “stand firm… even if it comes to a doomsday war.”
Trump rejected Iran’s 7-day proposal — reopening the Strait of Hormuz and resuming nuclear talks in exchange for lifting the U.S. naval blockade and sanctions relief — on Saturday, posting “IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!!!” to Truth Social. Per Wall Street Journal reporting relayed across multiple outlets, he has told aides he expects to resume bombing after the November midterms, 37 days out.
- 7daysLength of Iran's rejected roadmap: reopen Hormuz, resume nuclear talks, in exchange for lifting the naval blockade.
- 37days to midtermsPer WSJ reporting, the window before Trump has reportedly told aides he expects to resume bombing.
- 1uranium offerWaltz says US negotiators offered to sell Iran uranium for a civilian program; Iran rejected it.
- Feb 282026Date Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint US-Israel strike; his son Mojtaba succeeded him March 8.
“Heck, our negotiators even offered to sell them uranium,” Waltz told Kristen Welker, describing an offer for Iran’s civilian nuclear program that Tehran still turned down. Iran’s asking price, per Waltz, was steep: relief from “billions and billions of sanctions” tied to the administration’s “Operation Economic Fury” campaign, plus UN snapback sanctions that have been in place for years. “This was, I think, a pretty cynical attempt to put something on the table that they knew was unacceptable,” Waltz said.
Araghchi disputed Waltz’s framing directly, telling reporters the ambassador “has not read” the actual seven-day plan Iran submitted. The dispute itself is a data point: after months of on-and-off diplomacy, the two governments cannot even agree on what was offered.
Araghchi’s language was the starkest Iranian statement of the conflict to date: “We are fully prepared for the war to be resumed. We stand firm in the face of any new aggression, even if it comes to a doomsday war.” He paired it with a diplomatic hedge — “we are ready for diplomacy… if they reject it with no reason, this is their fault” — the same both-hands posture Tehran has held through most of this year’s escalation.
Trump rejected the proposal Saturday, telling reporters Iran wants to reopen the strait “because they are losing so badly… We’re winning tremendously.” His Truth Social response was blunter.
IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!!!
He followed it with an image post labeling the waterway “Trump Strait” on a map.
[Map image] Trump Strait
An image post relabeling the Strait of Hormuz on a map.
Per Wall Street Journal reporting picked up by The Hill, CNBC, and Washington Examiner, Trump has privately told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the November midterms — a timeline, not a confirmed order, but a marker of how little urgency the White House currently attaches to reviving talks.
Iran’s government at the negotiating table is not the one that entered this year. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint U.S.-Israel strike on February 28, 2026 — confirmed by NPR and other wire coverage the same day — and Iran’s Assembly of Experts installed his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, as the new Supreme Leader on March 8. Araghchi has remained Foreign Minister through the transition and is now the most senior Iranian official regularly speaking to Western media about the conflict.
Not every reaction in Washington was supportive. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), appearing on ABC’s “This Week” the same morning, said Trump is “stuck” in Iran: “The president got into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline, without an exit strategy.” Kelly said he believes Trump “would love to” “get back to where he was before he started this thing” — a Democratic senator’s read on a war now well into its eighth month with no ceasefire holding.
Cable reaction was split along familiar lines — caution on the right about believing Tehran, frustration on the left about the absence of an endgame.
Washington offered Iran a civilian uranium deal and Iran turned it down; Trump rejected Iran’s ceasefire terms in return. Both governments say the diplomatic door is still open. Both are simultaneously preparing their publics for a war neither has an exit plan for.
