Iran agrees to bring back uranium ‘gradually’: Trump; no question of handover: Tehran

U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed that Iran has agreed to hand over its enriched uranium to the United States. However, Tehran has firmly rejected this claim, stating that no such commitment has been made to anyone.
A spokesperson for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ebrahim Rezaei, told Al Jazeera that Iran has not agreed to transfer its enriched uranium.
Rezaei emphasized that reducing uranium enrichment to zero or halting Iran’s peaceful nuclear program is a “strategic red line” for Tehran, and no such proposal will be accepted under any circumstances.
Recently, Donald Trump has repeatedly asserted that Iran would hand over its stockpile of enriched uranium to Washington. In a post on Friday, he wrote: “The United States is going to take possession of all nuclear ‘dust’ (uranium).”
In a phone interview with Reuters the same day, Trump claimed that Washington would work with Tehran to recover the enriched uranium and transport it to the United States. He said, “We will do it together. We will go slowly into Iran, use heavy equipment to dig it out, and bring the uranium back to the United States.”
However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei dismissed Trump’s statements as baseless. Speaking to Tasnim News Agency, he said, “Enriched uranium is as sacred to us as Iran’s soil. Under no circumstances will it be transferred anywhere.”
It is worth noting that in June last year, the United States and Israel carried out strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Trump believes that what remains there after those attacks is what he refers to as “nuclear dust.”
It is estimated that Iran possesses more than 900 pounds of uranium enriched up to 60 percent purity. Iran’s nuclear program remains the central issue in any negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
Trump has previously stated that the purpose of the conflict was to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Iran, on the other hand, maintains that its uranium enrichment program is strictly for peaceful and civilian purposes.