US Treasury Secretary Bessent on Wednesday repeated prior Trump admin threats to get Iran energy exports down to zero, if the Iranians don't cooperate at the negotiating table in achieving a new nuclear deal.

This comes on the heals of US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff having called for a halt to all Iranian enrichment activity. He said Tuesday that a potential new deal would require the Islamic Republic to "stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program."

But on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected this as a non-starter, saying that his country's enrichment of uranium is "non-negotiable". Tehran has long maintained that this is only for domestic nuclear energy purposes.

"Iran's enrichment is a real, accepted matter," Araghchi told reporters. "We are ready to build confidence in response to possible concerns, but the issue of enrichment is non-negotiable."

The two sides are expected to engage in round two talks in Rome this coming Saturday, after Oman talks last weekend went from indirect to 'direct' dialogue.

But Araghchi has called what he called the "contradictory and conflicting positions" coming out of the Trump administration going into Saturday. "We will find out the true opinions of the Americans during the negotiation session," he said. There's been some do a deal or else threatening rhetoric from Washington of late.

A fresh Axios report has indeed highlighted a growing administration rift. It is essentially Vice President J.D. Vance vs. the hawks. Vance and his crew want to avoid another disastrous Middle East war at all costs:

• This camp includes also Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff — who represented the U.S. at the first round of Iran talks on Saturday — and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. It also gets outside support from MAGA influencer and Trump whisperer Tucker Carlson.
• This group is concerned that striking Iran's nuclear facilities would put U.S. soldiers in the region in harm's way when Iran strikes back.
• They also argue a new conflict in the region would send oil prices skyrocketing at a sensitive time for the U.S. economy.

Trump reportedly on Monday convened a big Iran discussion, with advisers on both sides of the issue represented.

One US official told Axios, "There are different approaches but people are not shouting at each other." This further comes at a moment a large deployment of B-2 bombers are positioned at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, and amid heightened anti-Houthi attacks in Yemen.

The NeoCon argument can be seen in the words of none other than Sen. Tom Cotton and the loud and old school talk-radio-for-boomers voice of Mark Levin...

Thankfully, Carlson has so far remained a more prominent voice of influence on the administration, recent reports suggest, and he has represented well the disgust and resentment that Americans and most veterans feel toward the recent history of all the Mideast quagmires and 'forever wars' - many launched under false pretenses and outright lies.

Last week, Carlson posted the following commentary to X: "it's clear that now is the worst possible time for the United State to participate in a military strike on Iran," he said in reference to Trump's new tariffs. 

Tucker: "We’re closer than ever" to war with Iran, "thanks to unrelenting pressure from neocons. This is suicidal."

"Thousands of Americans would die. We’d lose the war that follows. Nothing would be more destructive to our country," Carlson said, while blasting Iran hawks from the neoconservative movement. "Anyone advocating for conflict with Iran is not an ally of the United States, but an enemy," he added.