Putin Proposed Moving Iran’s Nuclear Material to Russia for Storage, but Trump Rejected It

The Financial News reported on the 13th (local time) that Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to United States President Donald Trump that enriched uranium held by the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran) be transferred to the Russian Federation for storage as one option to help end the war in the Middle East, but Trump did not accept the idea, according to US political outlet Axios.
Trump held a roughly one-hour phone call with Putin on the 9th, during which they discussed the war in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine, international oil prices, and the situation in Venezuela. It is not clear exactly when Trump rejected Putin’s proposal.
Iran currently possesses about 450 kilograms of uranium enriched to around 60%. Experts assess that, if this material were further enriched to weapons-grade levels over the course of several weeks, it would be enough to produce roughly 10 nuclear bombs.
If this enriched uranium were moved to Russia for storage or processing, it could, at least in theory, offer a way to remove Iran’s nuclear material without requiring ground forces from the United States or Israel.
Russia has been putting forward similar ideas for several years. It also proposed this approach as a mediation option during nuclear talks between the United States and Iran in May last year and again in February this year.
As a nuclear-armed state, Russia has the technology to safely manage and process enriched uranium. It previously received and processed about 11,000 kilograms of Iran’s low-enriched uranium under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA).
However, during the negotiations in February this year, Iran rejected this plan. Instead, it proposed lowering the enrichment level at its own facilities under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Meanwhile, the United States and Israel have reportedly also examined a plan to deploy special forces in the future to seize Iran’s enriched uranium in connection with the current war.
United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said at a press conference on the 13th that there are several options for securing Iran’s highly enriched uranium. One of them, he noted, would be Iran voluntarily giving it up, but he added that Tehran has shown no such intention during the negotiations.
Trump also commented in a Fox News Radio interview that securing Iran’s highly enriched uranium is not currently the United States’ top priority, but suggested that "if circumstances change later, that issue could become important."
clean@fnnews.com Lee Jeong-hwa Reporter