Iran's Supreme Leader orders enriched-uranium stockpile to stay in country, contradicting a key US demand

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has issued a directive that Iran's stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium must not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources told Reuters, hardening Tehran's position on one of the central demands in continuing US-Iran peace talks. "The Supreme Leader's directive, and the consensus within the establishment, is that the stockpile of enriched uranium should not leave the country," one source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The Supreme Leader has the last word on the most consequential state matters under Iran's constitutional structure.

The order directly contradicts a clause President Donald Trump has reportedly committed to Israel: Israeli officials told Reuters that Trump had assured Jerusalem that Iran's highly enriched uranium — the material that would be necessary to produce a nuclear weapon — would be removed from Iranian soil, and that any peace settlement would have to include that condition. The White House and Iran's foreign ministry did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

According to the Iranian sources, Tehran's top officials believe shipping the material abroad would leave the country more vulnerable to future attacks by the United States and Israel — the very parties to the war the talks aim to settle — and the directive reflects that calculation. The two sides have started to narrow some of the gaps in negotiations, the sources said, but deeper splits remain over the fate of the enriched-uranium stockpiles and over Tehran's demand for recognition of its right to enrichment. Iranian officials have stated repeatedly that the country's priority is a permanent end to the war and credible guarantees against further attacks; only after such assurances, they said, would Iran be prepared to enter detailed negotiations on its nuclear programme.