Iran has confirmed that Russia has offered its assistance in the nuclear dispute with the West.
"I met President (Vladimir) Putin in Russia, and we also discussed uranium," said Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi at a press conference in New Delhi on Friday. He thanked the Russian government for its "proposal."
Speaking on the sidelines of the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting, Araghchi was confirming remarks recently made by Putin.
Following the events marking the anniversary of victory in World War II on May 9, the Kremlin leader had stated that Russia was prepared to take on highly enriched uranium from Iran for storage.
Iran’s nuclear programme is controversial. The US, Israel and Western nations accuse the leadership in Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies this.
The West is particularly concerned about the stockpile of around 440 kilograms of uranium, which has been enriched to 60% in Iran and, if further enriched, could be sufficient to build several nuclear weapons.
Even before the war that the US and Israel launched against Iran at the end of February, representatives from Washington and Tehran were negotiating the fate of the highly enriched material.
US President Donald Trump is pressing for the uranium to be taken out of the country. According to reports, diluting the material was also discussed, though Tehran attached conditions to this.
The uranium is said to be stored in one of Iran’s underground nuclear facilities, which was bombed in 2025.
