US President Donald Trump has laid out his preferred approach for dealing with Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium as negotiators gather in Qatar for critical talks.
Washington is pushing for Tehran to fully dismantle its nuclear program, while Iranian leaders maintain that enriching uranium is a sovereign right and insist they are not pursuing nuclear weapons.
“The enriched uranium (nuclear dust!) will either be handed over immediately to the United States to be transported back and destroyed or, preferably, destroyed on-site or at another agreed location in coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or a similar body, overseeing the process,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday evening.
RT reports: On Sunday, CBS News, citing a senior US official, reported that Iran had agreed “in principle” to dispose of its enriched uranium. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, however, said on Monday that the negotiations were focused on ending the armed conflict with the US. “At this stage, we are not discussing nuclear issues,” he said.
The sides are expected to discuss reopening the Strait of Hormuz and potentially unfreezing Iranian assets. According to media reports, the two sides are close to extending the truce announced on April 8 by another 60 days.
Axios and Al Arabiya reported that the draft agreement to be discussed in Doha includes a commitment to negotiate the fate of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile over a 60-day period.
Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Friday that Iran would “not compromise on its rights” as a sovereign nation. Iranian officials said ahead of the talks that the US needed to rebuild trust after launching airstrikes on Iran in late February, shortly after a round of Omani-mediated negotiations.