TEHRAN, November 11 (Aalimi Nation) – Iran will not allow any of its enriched uranium to leave the country, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said on Wednesday, rejecting a proposal to transfer the material to a third country.
In an interview with a Lebanese television channel, Rezaei said Tehran had turned down the idea of shipping its 60 per cent enriched stockpile abroad, a step the United States had proposed. Russia had offered to receive and store the material.
"We will not allow even a single particle of enriched nuclear material to leave Iran," Rezaei said. He added that Tehran had passed its decision to Moscow: "We have informed our Russian friends that the enriched materials will remain in Iran and that we will use them ourselves."
Rezaei gave one reason for keeping the stockpile at home. "We need enriched materials to design nuclear-powered ships and submarines," he said. Iranian officials have separately described the stockpile as intended for domestic energy needs and research.
He also warned that any fresh US attack would be met with "a severe response", including against American military bases far from Iran. He said Iran had reached an "advanced level in electronic warfare" that allowed it to take control of US drones. That claim could not be independently verified.
Rezaei said Iran had set out conditions to Washington and was awaiting a reply. He described ending the war on all fronts in West Asia, especially in Lebanon, as "one of our fundamental conditions". Another account of the interview quoted him as saying formal negotiations could not proceed until foreign powers met Iran's baseline security conditions.
His remarks came on a day when Iran also denied that it was holding talks with the United States and said the Strait of Hormuz would stay shut until its demands were met. President Masoud Pezeshkian accused Washington of pursuing what he called "diplomacy through threats", saying the United States was invoking new military capabilities.
Enrichment to 60 per cent is far above the level used in civilian power reactors, though below the roughly 90 per cent associated with weapons-grade material. That is why the location and size of the stockpile has remained central to every round of diplomacy over Iran's nuclear programme.
Iran has framed the stockpile as a strategic asset. By ruling out any transfer, Rezaei has closed off one of the options that outside powers had been exploring. Regional mediators have tried to find compromises on enrichment levels and stockpile limits.
Tehran says formal talks cannot begin until its conditions are met, and Washington has not publicly accepted them. No response from the United States to Rezaei's latest statements had been reported by Wednesday evening, and Russia has not commented publicly on the decision to decline its offer.
The size of the stockpile, the timing of the notification to Russia and a full list of Iran's conditions remain unconfirmed. Any movement on the uranium question is likely to shape whether the current exchange of warnings turns into negotiations or a fresh round of confrontation.
