Iran refuses to handover enriched uranium during security chief’s meeting with Asim Munir

Even as US President Donald Trump continues to stress that he would never allow Iran to go nuclear, Tehran has reportedly refused to surrender the stockpile of its enriched uranium under a potential agreement. Further, the Islamic Republic has reiterated that no talks would be held with the United States until the demands raised by it are fulfilled.

During a meeting with Pakistan’s Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir on Tuesday, Mohsen Rezaei — secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council — has underlined that Tehran would not allow the enriched uranium to be moved out of the country. He said the enriched uranium is Iran’s national asset and would remain there for domestic use.

He stressed that the US must take the onus in rebuilding trust and ensuring that all of Iran’s demands are met.

“Not even a tiny bit of enriched nuclear material will leave Iran. Such materials constitute a major asset and national wealth for the Iranian people, intended for use within the country,” Rezaei said, as cited by Times of Israel. “There will be no negotiations until America takes steps to build trust — a process that must begin with the fulfillment of Iran’s conditions.” 

Pakistan has been engaged in negotiation peace between the US and Iran, but has failed so far. Munir’s Tuesday’s visit to Iran was yet another effort by Islamabad, but if one were to go by what Rezaei said, Pakistan has failed once again and was left red-faced.

Meanwhile, Trump — who is facing the heat over the ongoing conflict with Iran that began on February 28 this year — has maintained that he would not allow Tehran to become a nuclear power. Last week, he claimed that the war is in its last legs and will end “very quickly”.

“It’s going to end very quickly. When it ends, your gas prices are going to be lower than what they were before,” Trump said Saturday in Kentucky. “You know, when I did the little excursion to the Islamic, the beautiful Islamic Republic of Iran, we beat the shit out of them. But when I did that excursion, we knocked out their nuclear capacity.”

But going by what Rezaei told Munir on Tuesday, it appears unlikely that Iran would surrender its nuclear material and the conflict will end anytime soon.

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