Iran likely to resist moving uranium stockpile to 3rd country
Iran expected to resist US plan to move its uranium stockpile to third country, according to a report by the Western media.
A report by The Guardian said that the Iran is expected to resist a US proposal to transfer its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to a third country such as Russia as the talks between Iran and the United States have got underway on Tehran's nuclear program.
Iran is expected to resist a US proposal to transfer its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to a third country – such as Russia – as part of Washington’s effort to scale back Tehran’s civil nuclear programme and prevent it from being used to develop a nuclear weapon.
The issue, seen as one of the key stumbling blocks to a future agreement, was raised in the initial, largely indirect, talks held in Muscat, Oman, between Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Iran is arguing the stockpile, amassed over the past four years, should remain in Iran under the strict supervision of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. Tehran sees this as a precaution, or a form of insurance in case a future US administration withdraws from the agreement, as Donald Trump did in 2018 when he rejected the 2015 deal brokered by Barack Obama.
Tehran says that if the stockpile was to leave Iran and the US pulled out of the deal, it would have to start enriching from the very beginning.
The Guardian report added that the meeting between Iran and the US representatives in Oman last Saturday mostly took place indirectly.