Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly proposed moving Iran’s enriched uranium to Russia as part of a potential deal to end the US-Israel conflict with Iran, an idea Trump rejected during a phone call this week, an Axios report said, citing sources.
On Monday, March 9, Trump said the war against Iran “is largely done” and had a phone call with Putin – which the Kremlin said was a “frank and to the point” conversation that lasted about an hour.
What did Putin and Trump discuss?
During the call with Trump, Putin reportedly proposed several ideas for ending the war, including the possibility of transferring enriched uranium to Russia.
However, a US official told Axios that the proposal was not accepted.
“This is not the first time it has been offered. It has not been accepted. The US position is that we need the uranium to be secured,” the official said.
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The portal also reported that Russia made similar proposals during the US-Iran nuclear talks 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 enriched uranium important?
Iran is believed to have around 450kg of 60% enriched uranium – material that could be turned into weapons within weeks and is believed to be enough for more than 10 nuclear bombs.
Already a nuclear power, Russia has previously stored Iran’s low-enriched uranium as part of the 2015 nuclear deal, making it one of the few countries with the technical capacity to accept the material, according to Axios.
Donald Trump has stated that the complete elimination of Iran’s nuclear capabilities is one of his key goals in the ongoing war.
During a press conference Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. “has a number of options” to take control of Iran’s uranium stockpile.
He said one possible scenario could be for Iran to voluntarily give up supplies, 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 certainly have options,” Hegseth said, according to multiple reports.
Is “a greater US military presence” required?
Recovering Iran’s remaining stockpile of highly enriched uranium — believed to be stored in an underground facility — would require a much larger U.S. military presence than a small special operations force, CNN previously reported, citing seven current and former officials familiar with the planning.
The US bombing campaign that hit 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 at Iran’s nuclear facility in Isfahan, three sources said, according to the source.
