Iran Refuses to Surrender Enriched Uranium as Regional Diplomacy Intensifies Amid Ongoing Conflict
Tehran has held firm to its position that the ongoing conflict will not end and the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States accepts its conditions, defying international pressure regarding its contentious nuclear programme. The uncompromising stance was reiterated by Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, following a meeting with Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir in Tehran on Wednesday.
“Not a single gram of enriched uranium will be removed from Iran,” Rezaei said, though he did not rule out downblending highly enriched uranium domestically under supervision from monitors. Iranian authorities frame the decades-old nuclear programme as a sovereign right and national wealth achieved despite years of sabotage, strikes, and assassinations. Officials argue that surrendering the programme under military pressure without ironclad security guarantees would amount to capitulation.
Before Israeli and US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025, the International Atomic Energy Agency estimated that Tehran possessed 440 kilogrammes of uranium enriched up to 60 percent. Following subsequent US and Israeli strikes on nuclear sites in 2026, the current size, condition, and whereabouts of much of the enriched stockpile remain unverified. Tehran has barred IAEA inspectors from its nuclear facilities since the war began, accusing the agency of advancing Western interests and referring the nuclear file to the United Nations Security Council.
Despite the hostilities, a flurry of diplomatic activity has unfolded in the region. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Tehran on Monday after meeting Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and Arab officials have also held discussions. Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly met with Israeli security officials earlier in the week, though the diplomatic engagements have done little to reduce the prospects of renewed warfare.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi cautioned at an exporters’ conference in Tehran on Wednesday that the country faces threats of additional attacks and expansive economic sanctions. “The reality is that the country is truly in war conditions and the war continues,” Araghchi said. Parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told Munir that Iran expected the realization of conditions offered in New York last month to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days.
Tehran’s proposed terms include returning to a June memorandum of understanding and recognizing an Iran-Oman deal regarding temporary transit in the Strait of Hormuz. The memorandum calls for an immediate bigger deal on the nuclear issue, the removal of the US naval blockade on southern Iranian ports, oil sanction waivers, frozen asset releases, and a halt to military action in Lebanon and other regional hotspots.
Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior policy fellow and deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, noted that Tehran remains willing to negotiate over the fate of highly enriched uranium or monitor access only if directly linked to a clear implementation protocol for US sanctions relief. However, she emphasized that such comprehensive negotiations remain distant.
Military preparations continue to escalate. US media reported that the Pentagon is deploying the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and a Marine unit to the Middle East to provide strike options around the time of the US midterm elections. US officials have discussed potential operations including strikes on Pickaxe Mountain, utilizing heavy ordnance against nuclear and energy facilities, seizing southern islands in the Strait of Hormuz, and targeting Iranian officials. In response, a state-run media outlet cited an unnamed security official indicating that decision-makers in Tehran have chosen to advance without limitations or restraint if further attacks or assassinations occur.
