Iran has ruled out handing over its enriched uranium to any other country, its top security official said on Wednesday, dealing a fresh blow to efforts to end the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz and the country’s nuclear programme. The Iran uranium rejection leaves Washington’s central demand unmet and the vital shipping lane closed.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, made the declaration in an interview with Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen television, according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB. He said Tehran had told Moscow, once seen as a possible destination for the material, that not a single particle of enriched uranium would leave the country. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei had already rejected the proposed transfer, arguing there was no justification for sending the material abroad.
No Talks Under Way, Tehran Insists
Rezaei also dismissed reports that negotiations with Washington were continuing, calling claims of a planned meeting in Qatar “a pure lie” and saying no talks were currently taking place between Tehran and Washington. A senior Iranian official said last week that Tehran had sent Washington a nuclear proposal through Qatar, but Rezaei said the nuclear issue was not currently on the agenda. He warned that Iran could strike American military bases in Europe and beyond if the United States resumed attacks on the country.
The dispute centres on a stockpile that the International Atomic Energy Agency estimated at 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent before US and Israeli strikes on three major Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025. How much of that stockpile survived the strikes is unclear. The Trump administration wants Iran to surrender its highly enriched uranium and accept restrictions on its broader nuclear programme, while Tehran portrays its nuclear work as peaceful and under domestic control.
Seven Conditions Keep Hormuz Shut
The Strait of Hormuz, effectively closed to normal commercial traffic since late February, will stay shut until the United States meets Iran’s seven conditions, Rezaei said. The conditions include an end to the US naval blockade, sanctions relief, access to frozen Iranian funds and an end to military operations across the region, particularly in Lebanon. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said the waterway could reopen within two days if Tehran’s demands are met, and Iran has compressed its plan into a two-day implementation timetable.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed on Wednesday that two more oil tankers struck naval mines and caught fire while trying to leave the strait, the latest in a series of tanker incidents that have pushed oil prices higher. The war is now in its ninth month, and the standoff has roiled global markets and disrupted oil and gas supplies around the world. Readers can follow earlier developments in our report on Iran denying US talks as Hormuz stays shut and the US naval mission to free Hormuz shipping.
