Motjaba Khamenei Sets ‘Red Line’ on Sending Enriched Uranium Abroad

Iran’s Supreme Leader has issued a directive that the country’s near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources told Reuters on Thursday. The directive sets an additional red line on one of the main US demands at peace talks, amid signs of a widening rift between Tehran and Washington over the future of Iran’s nuclear program. On Thursday, the Reuters report came shortly after Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei affirmed his country will not transfer uranium to any other state. “Why should Iran move its material to another country?” he said. The spokesperson added that the US has proposed “several demands,” but Iran’s nuclear program “has been and remains 100% peaceful,” Iranian media reported. Mojtaba Khamenei’s order could further frustrate US President Donald Trump and complicate talks on ending the US-Israeli war on Iran, according to Reuters. Israeli officials have told the news agency that Trump has assured Israel that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, needed to make an atomic weapon, will be sent out of Iran and that any peace deal must include a clause on this. Israel, the United States and other Western states have long accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, including pointing to its move to enrich uranium to 60%, far higher than needed for civilian uses and closer to the 90% needed for a weapon. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not consider the war over until enriched uranium is removed from Iran, Tehran ends its support for ⁠proxy militias, and its ballistic missile capabilities are eliminated. “The Supreme Leader’s directive, and the consensus within the establishment, is that the stockpile of enriched uranium should not leave the country,” said one of the two Iranian sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Iran’s top officials, the sources said, believe that sending the material abroad would leave the country more vulnerable to future attacks by the United States and Israel. Khamenei has the last say on the most important state matters. The two sides have started to narrow some gaps, the sources said, but deeper splits remain over Tehran’s nuclear program — including the fate of its enriched uranium stockpiles and Tehran’s demand for recognition of its right to enrichment. Iranian officials have repeatedly said Tehran’s priority is to secure a permanent end to the war and credible guarantees that the US and Israel will not launch further attacks. Only after such assurances are in place, they said, would Iran be prepared to engage ⁠in detailed negotiations over its nuclear program. Israel is widely believed to have an atomic arsenal but has never confirmed or denied it has nuclear weapons, maintaining a so-called policy of ambiguity on the issue for decades. Before the war, Iran signaled willingness to ship out half of its stockpile of uranium which has been enriched to 60%, a level far higher than what is needed for civilian uses. But sources said that position changed after repeated threats from Trump to strike Iran. Israeli officials have told Reuters it is still unclear whether Trump will ⁠decide to attack and whether he would give Israel a green light to resume operations. Tehran has vowed a crushing response if attacked. However, the source said there were “feasible formulas” to resolve the matter. “There are solutions like diluting the stockpile under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” one of the Iranian sources said. The IAEA estimates that Iran had 440.9 kg of uranium enriched to 60% when Israel and the US attacked Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said in March that what remained of that stock was “mainly” stored in a tunnel complex in Iran’s Isfahan nuclear facility, and that his agency believed slightly more than 200 kg of it was there. The IAEA also believes some is at the sprawling nuclear complex at Natanz, where Iran had two enrichment plants. Iran says some highly enriched uranium is needed for medical purposes and for a research reactor in Tehran which runs on relatively small amounts of uranium enriched to around 20%.