Iran says Trump admin sought full uranium stock for temporary UN relief

By Arsalan Shahla

 

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said the Trump administration had demanded his country hand over its entire enriched uranium stockpile in exchange for temporary relief from impending UN sanctions.

 

Pezeshkian’s remarks Saturday came as Iran’s currency hit a fresh record low and the country recalled its envoys to the UK, France and Germany amid rising tensions with the West over its nuclear program.

 

“They want us to give them all of our enriched uranium in exchange for giving us a three-month period, which is absolutely unacceptable,” Pezeshkian said, referring to the US. He was speaking ahead of his return to Tehran from this week’s UN summit in New York, state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

 

A Russian- and Chinese-drafted resolution aimed at delaying the reinstatement of UN sanctions on Iran failed to pass at the Security Council on Friday. The sanctions, lifted under Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, are set to snap back Saturday evening in the US.

 

Tehran recalled its ambassadors from the UK, France and Germany for “consultations” on Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said, in response to the sanctions snapback triggered by the three countries last month. The rial, Iran’s national currency, also fell as low as 1,110,000 per dollar in the unregulated market by midday, according to local media and a Tehran-based trader, extending a run of record lows in September.

 

Pezeshkian said that while Iran had “reached a conclusion with the European parties” over the snapback mechanism, “the US approach is different.”

 

“In a few months, they will raise another demand and say that they want to trigger the snapback,” Pezeshkian said. “If we have to choose between their unreasonable demand and the snapback, we will choose the snapback.”

 

On Friday, Pezeshkian said Iran was willing to remain in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty despite the fresh sanctions. Iranian officials have repeatedly said the country isn’t seeking nuclear weapons, but it also won’t give up its fundamental ability to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.