Kazakhstan has indicated that it is willing to take Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched close to weapons-grade levels if Washington and Tehran reach a deal over the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme, the head of the UN’s watchdog said, Financial Times reports.
Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the FT that the central Asian state expressed its openness to keeping the stockpile when he met Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Astana this week.
The fate of Iran's 440kg of uranium enriched to 60 per cent purity is one of the thorniest issues in back-channel talks between Washington and Tehran over a deal to end the US-Israeli war against Iran. President Donald Trump has demanded that it be transferred out of the republic.
In public, Tehran has indicated it would not hand over the stockpile. But there would be a commitment to discussing either diluting or transferring the fissile material as part of the deal to extend a fragile ceasefire by 60 days, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and lay the framework for talks on its nuclear programme, people briefed on the proposal said.
A US official said on Thursday that negotiators from both sides had reached a memorandum of understanding over a deal, but that Trump had not yet approved the document and needed some days to think about it.
US vice-president JD Vance later on Thursday said Washington was "not there yet" but that the parties were close, adding that sticking points included the stockpile.
