President Donald Trump said the United States will not allow Iran to retain highly enriched uranium as negotiations and regional tensions continue to escalate.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States intends to ultimately take possession of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, escalating rhetoric surrounding Tehran’s nuclear program as negotiations between the two countries remain deadlocked.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump declared that Washington would not permit Iran to retain the material, which Western governments and Israel view as a major proliferation concern.
“We will get it,” Trump said. “We don’t need it, we don’t want it. We’ll probably destroy it after we get it, but we’re not going to let them have it.”
According to reporting from Reuters, Trump’s remarks came after Iranian officials reportedly reaffirmed that Tehran would not transfer its near-weapons-grade uranium outside the country.
The dispute over Iran’s uranium stockpile has become one of the central issues in ongoing negotiations involving the United States, Iran, and Israel following months of regional conflict and military escalation.
Trump stated that Iran is believed to possess approximately 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium, material he said had been buried following joint U.S. and Israeli airstrikes conducted nearly a year earlier against Iranian nuclear-related facilities.
The president reiterated that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remains a primary objective of U.S. policy.
Reuters separately reported that two senior Iranian sources said Mojtaba Khamenei had issued a directive ordering that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium remain inside the country.
According to those officials, Iran’s leadership believes transferring the uranium abroad would leave the country vulnerable to future attacks or coercion by the United States and Israel.
Iran has consistently denied seeking nuclear weapons and maintains that its uranium enrichment activities are intended for peaceful civilian and research purposes.
Israeli leaders, however, have repeatedly insisted that any future agreement involving Tehran must include removal or destruction of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile.
The uranium issue has emerged as one of the most contentious obstacles in negotiations following a fragile ceasefire that ended recent fighting involving Iran, Israel, and U.S. military forces in the region.
No agreement has yet been announced regarding the future disposition of Iran’s nuclear materials.
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