President Trump walked back his three-week-old "B2 dust" framing in a Truth Social post late Monday, writing that Iran's enriched uranium "will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent, being witness to this process and event" [1]. The post moved the negotiating position closer to Tehran's standing demand than any U.S. statement of the cycle.

The paper's Monday major on Pezeshkian's reply through Mojtaba Khamenei traced the prior U.S. demand — that the uranium leave Iranian soil and be destroyed in the United States — through five Iranian voices over four days, each of which rejected it. The Monday Truth Social paragraph is the first time the U.S. position has moved. The phrase "in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran" appears nowhere in the earlier statements [2]. The Atomic Energy Commission Trump named is most naturally read as the International Atomic Energy Agency, which Iran has continued to engage at Vienna level.

The contrast with Friday's posture is structural. On May 22, responding to a question about Mojtaba Khamenei's directive that near-weapons-grade uranium not be sent abroad, Trump said: "We will get it. We don't need it, we don't want it. We'll probably destroy it after we get it, but we're not going to let them have it" [3]. The Monday post replaces "get it" and "after we get it" with "preferably destroyed in place" and "another acceptable location." On the most consequential clause of any agreement, the verbs changed.

Iranian official reaction tracked across the night. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi did not post on his X account through 6 a.m. Tehran time Tuesday. The Foreign Ministry spokesman, in a Tuesday morning briefing carried by ISNA, told reporters Tehran "welcomes constructive language" but had no formal position to announce. A senior Iranian diplomat told ISNA earlier in the day that Tehran is willing to put its enriched uranium stockpile on the negotiating table within a 60-day window, in exchange for sanctions relief and the release of frozen Iranian assets [1]. The diplomat's framing — uranium "on the table" with the program intact — is internally consistent with destruction in place.

The IAEA did not respond to inquiries from the paper or, per Reuters, from other outlets through Monday evening Vienna time [2]. Director General Rafael Grossi has previously said any verification regime requires Iranian access for inspectors and instruments; he has not previously commented on a witness-only role for "the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent." Israeli reaction was confined to a single line from the Prime Minister's Office reiterating that the war will not end "until enriched uranium is removed from Iran, Tehran ends its support for proxy militias, and its ballistic missile capabilities are eliminated" [4]. The line, posted twice in May, did not engage the Trump softening.

Rubio in New Delhi Monday told reporters that if diplomacy "doesn't produce results," the United States is prepared to take "another way" — a phrase he did not define [1]. The Rubio comment and the Trump post sit in tension: the Secretary of State signaling an exit ramp at the same hour the President was conceding the central clause Iran has refused to move on for nine weeks. The senior administration official who told NewsNation's Katie Pavlich Monday afternoon "no dust, no dollars" — meaning Iran would not access frozen funds until it surrendered the partially enriched material — appeared not to have been briefed on the Trump post that followed.

What changed between Friday and Monday is the binding architecture of the demand. "Destroyed in place" puts the IAEA, not the United States, in custody of verification. It puts Iranian soil, not American soil, on the destruction line. It puts Tehran's red line — that the program stay on Iranian territory — inside the U.S. negotiating envelope rather than against it. The paper's Saturday lead on the eight-capital call argued that Trump was constructing the Iran-deal endgame out of paragraphs no one had yet signed. The Monday paragraph contains a clause Tehran will sign. Whether it is the clause Riyadh, Tel Aviv, or Cassidy's eight Republican senators will sign is the question for the week.

-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem