Iran’s top security official said on Tuesday, October 20, that “not even a tiny bit” of the country’s enriched uranium would be allowed to leave its territory, according to Iranian state TV cited by AFP, hardening Tehran’s stance as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described a peace deal as extremely difficult.
A firm line on the nuclear stockpile
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, made the remarks during talks in Tehran with a visiting Pakistani delegation, according to state television. “Not even a tiny bit of enriched nuclear material will leave Iran,” he said, describing the material as national wealth intended for use inside the country. He added that there would be no negotiations “until America takes steps to build trust.”
Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who leads Iran’s negotiating team, struck a similar tone. “We have nothing new to say; America cannot gain Iran’s trust unless it fulfils the seven conditions,” he said, adding that “threats and military maneuvers cannot influence Iran’s strategic decisions.” President Masoud Pezeshkian said the United States “must first remove the threats and sanctions.”
Iran holds uranium enriched to 60 percent, a level below but close to the roughly 90 percent considered weapons-grade, a figure reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Tehran had previously said it would not hand the material to any other country, while hinting that it could dilute it on its own soil. Western governments accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, a charge Tehran denies.
Washington’s demands on enrichment
The question of the stockpile sits at the heart of US demands. Earlier this month, Vice President JD Vance told Reuters that Iran should make a “meaningful” reduction in its enrichment capacity. “If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60 percent enriched fuel?” he asked. Rubio has repeated that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
According to Al Jazeera, Rubio told US media on Tuesday that reaching a peace agreement with Tehran was extremely difficult and that economic pressure would continue until Iran stops targeting commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have claimed a series of tanker incidents involving naval mines near the strait in recent days, claims that remain unverified.
Tehran’s sequencing and the mediators
Iran’s position is that nuclear negotiations can only follow the fulfilment of its own conditions. Its so-called seven-day plan, conveyed through Qatari mediators, offers to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week, under Iranian control, if Washington lifts its naval blockade, eases restrictions on oil exports, releases frozen assets and ends hostilities on all fronts, Reuters and Al Jazeera have reported.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iraqi state television, in an interview aired on Wednesday, that the strait would remain closed until an understanding is reached, and that indirect talks with the United States were continuing through Pakistan and Qatar. “The nuclear issue is nothing more than a pretext,” he said, according to The National. Qatar has said communication between Washington and Tehran “has not stopped.”
Iran’s Nournews agency reported late on Tuesday that a Qatari delegation had arrived in Tehran, according to Reuters. There was no official confirmation, and the Tasnim news agency denied the visit, citing an unnamed source.
Little expectation of a breakthrough before US midterms
Three senior Iranian officials told Reuters that Tehran sees little chance of an agreement before the November 3 US congressional elections and is preparing for possible renewed strikes. President Donald Trump has said the United States will not attack Iran again before the vote.
A memorandum of understanding signed in June briefly eased the war that began in February with US and Israeli strikes on Iran, but it soon broke down. Since then, indirect contacts, including on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September, have produced no breakthrough, leaving the fate of Iran’s enriched uranium as one of the most intractable issues on the table.
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