President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States will not allow Iran to keep its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, sharpening a demand that has become the most stubborn point in talks over a possible nuclear deal. reported the same day that Iran’s supreme leader had issued a directive barring the removal of the uranium, setting up a direct clash over the fate of the material.
“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,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. The stockpile at issue is believed to be about 440kg, or 970lb, of uranium enriched to 60 percent, far below the 90 percent needed for weapons-grade material but still close enough to alarm negotiators and regional rivals alike.
That quantity has been the central unresolved issue in US-Iran peace negotiations, because whoever controls it controls the pace of any breakout toward a bomb. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi told Al Jazeera in early March that if the material were further enriched to 90 percent, it would be enough to produce more than 10 nuclear warheads. Almost all of Iran’s stockpile is thought to be in the form of hexafluoride gas stored in small canisters, making any transfer or seizure a highly sensitive operation.
Iran’s position is now harder than ever to miss. reported, citing two unnamed senior Iranian sources, that the enriched uranium should not be sent abroad, and quoted one report saying, “The Supreme Leader’s directive, and the consensus within the establishment, is that the stockpile of enriched uranium should not leave the country.” The standoff comes after years of escalation: Iran signed a deal with the United States in 2015 to limit its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, Trump withdrew from that agreement in 2018 and restored sanctions, and Iran later raised enrichment from the 3.67 percent allowed under the deal to almost 60 percent after the US withdrawal and the bombing of its Natanz nuclear facility in 2021.
The dispute also cuts across the diplomacy itself. reported, citing unnamed Israeli officials, that Trump had assured Israel the stockpile would be sent out of Iran and that any peace agreement would include a clause on the issue, while Thursday’s comments suggested Washington is still treating the material as something it could seize and destroy. Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only and that it does not intend to build nuclear weapons, but the uranium remains the test that will show whether either side is prepared to compromise or whether the talks are headed for another rupture.
