Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly proposed moving Iran’s enriched uranium to Russia as part of a potential deal to end US, Israel’s ongoing conflict with Iran, Trump rejected the idea during a phone call this week, mentioned a report by Axios, citing sources.
On Monday, March 9, Trump said that war against Iran ‘was very much complete,’ and had a call with Putin – which according to the Kremlin, was a ‘frank and businesslike’ conversation, and lasted about an hour.
What did Putin and Trump discuss?
Putin reportedly proposed several ideas for ending the war during the call with Trump including the possibility of transferring the enriched uranium to Russia.
However, a US official told Axios that the proposal was not accepted.
“This is not the first time it was offered. It hasn’t been accepted. The U.S. position is we need to see the uranium secured,” the official said.
The outlet also reported that Russia had floated similar proposals during US-Iran nuclear negotiations last May — before the US and Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities in June —as well as in the weeks leading up to the current conflict.
Why is the enriched Uranium important?
Iran is believed to have around 450 kg of 60%-enriched uranium – material that could be converted to weapons-grade within weeks and is considered enough for more than 10 nuclear bombs.
Russia is already a nuclear power and has previously stored Iran’s low-enriched uranium under the 2015 nuclear deal, making it one of the few countries with the technical capacity to accept the material, as per Axios.
Donald Trump has said that completely eliminating Iran’s nuclear capabilities is one of his key objectives in the ongoing war.
During a press conference on Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth claimed that the US “has a range of options” to take control of Iran’s uranium stockpile.
He said one possible scenario could be Iran voluntarily surrendering the stockpile, which the US “would welcome”. “They weren’t willing to do that in negotiations. I would never tell this group or the world what we’re willing to do or how far we’re willing to go — but we have options, for sure,” Hegseth said, as per multiple reports.
‘Larger US military presence’ required?
Recovering Iran’s remaining stockpile of highly enriched uranium — believed to be stored in an underground facility — would require a far larger US military presence than a small special operations force, CNN reported earlier, citing seven current and former officials familiar with the planning.
The US bombing campaign that struck three Iranian nuclear facilities in June did not destroy all of the country’s highly enriched uranium. Much of the remaining stockpile is believed to be located at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site, three of the sources said, as per the outlet.
