The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has reiterated Tehran’s position that it will not transfer its enriched uranium to another country as part of any peace deal with the United States.
Speaking to Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV, Mohsen Rezaei said Iran “will not remove a single atom of enriched nuclear material” and that Tehran had informed Moscow of its decision. Russia has often been cited as a potential destination for Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
Snippets of Rezaei’s comments were released on November 11 ahead of the broadcast of his full interview later in the day.
Before June 2025 strikes by the United States and Israel that targeted three major nuclear facilities, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimated that Tehran had 440.9 kilograms enriched to 60 percent. Inspectors were unable to verify how much survived the attacks or where it is stored, while fresh air strikes hit facilities when a new conflict -- which has yet to be settled -- broke out on February 28.
Rezaei, who was appointed as the SNSC’s secretary in August and serves as Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s representative on the council, met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin last week.
His comments come as reports swirl over a potential meeting between him and US Vice President JD Vance to negotiate a deal that reopens the Strait of Hormuz and ends the war against Iran, now in its ninth month.
Al Mayadeen quoted Rezaei as saying that there were no talks being held between Tehran and Washington, dismissing reports of a recent meeting in Qatar as “pure lies” meant to drive down oil prices which have risen around the world due to instability in the Middle East sparked by the war.
Iran and the United States remain locked in a fragile standoff, with neither side returning to full-scale war or making meaningful progress toward a lasting peace.
Although large-scale fighting has largely stopped, key points of contention remain unresolved, including Iran's nuclear program, the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, and the disruption of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
On November 9, US President Donald Trump defended the war but also said it was “effectively over” militarily, which indicates a shift by the White House away from recent threats that the United States could resume air strikes.
The strategy of maintaining economic and military pressure on Tehran will likely continue, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
"The economic campaign (against Iran) is so devastating that right now there is no need for major combat operations," he said after a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Paris on November 10.
Meanwhile, Iran refuses to reopen the strategic waterway without major concessions, including sanctions relief, access to its frozen funds, the lifting of the blockade, and an end to hostilities across the region, particularly in Lebanon.