Iran has agreed to give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium as part of a broader peace agreement being negotiated with the United States to end the ongoing West Asia conflict, two US officials told The New York Times.
The development came after US President Donald Trump announced that Washington and Tehran were close to finalising a deal aimed at ending hostilities and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. While Trump did not disclose the specifics of the proposed arrangement, US officials told the newspaper that Tehran had agreed in principle to relinquish its stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium.
However, the officials said the understanding remains broad at this stage, with the exact mechanism for disposing of the uranium yet to be negotiated. Detailed discussions on how Iran would transfer, dilute, or otherwise neutralise the material are expected to take place in a later round of nuclear talks once the broader agreement is formally reached.
The reported concession marked a major shift in negotiations, especially after Iranian sources recently claimed that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had directed that the uranium stockpile should not be sent out of the country.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran currently possesses nearly 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 per cent purity, a level close to weapons-grade. Israeli officials have repeatedly argued that the stockpile could potentially be refined further to produce material for multiple nuclear bombs.
The issue had emerged as a key sticking point in the negotiations. Iranian negotiators had reportedly pushed to postpone any commitment on the uranium stockpile until a later phase of talks. But US officials said Washington has insisted that Tehran must make at least a preliminary commitment in the initial agreement, warning that failure to do so could lead to the collapse of talks and a resumption of military operations.
The NYT report also said American military planners had in recent days prepared options to target Iran's uranium reserves, much of which is believed to be stored underground at the Isfahan nuclear facility. The site had previously been struck by US Tomahawk missiles last year. Among the options reportedly discussed was the use of bunker-busting bombs to destroy the buried stockpile.
At one stage, Trump also considered approving a joint US-Israeli commando operation to seize the uranium stockpile after Iran regained access to the material following earlier strikes, the newspaper claimed. The operation was ultimately not authorised due to the high risks involved.
One possible route under discussion mirrors the framework used during the 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated under former US President Barack Obama, when Iran transferred large portions of its enriched uranium stockpile to Russia. Another option could involve reducing the enrichment level to make the uranium unusable for weapons purposes.
The next phase of negotiations is also expected to focus on the future of Iran's uranium enrichment programme. While the United States has reportedly sought a long-term moratorium on enrichment activities, Iran is said to have proposed a significantly shorter timeline.
The proposed agreement is also expected to include the release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets held abroad. According to the report, most of the funds linked to reconstruction assistance would only be released after a final nuclear agreement is concluded, giving Tehran an incentive to continue negotiations.
Twelve weeks after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, the fallout continues to ripple across the region. The attacks killed several senior Iranian figures, including the country's supreme leader, and derailed US-Iran nuclear negotiations for the second time in under a year.
In response, Iran targeted Israel as well as neighbouring countries hosting American military bases, rattling Gulf states that had long seen themselves as insulated from the region's conflicts.
Source: India Today