Kazakhstan has offered to take Iran’s uranium stockpile if the United States and Iran reach an accord on Tehran’s contested nuclear programme, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Financial Times on Friday.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency met with Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Astana this week.
The Financial Times said the Kazakh leader had expressed his country’s “openness” to store the stockpile enriched to near weapons grade level.
The estimated 440 kilogrammes of uranium processed to 60 percent purity is at the centre of talks between the United States and Iran on extending the ceasefire in the war unleashed by US-Israel attacks.
US President Donald Trump has insisted that Iran must accept that it will not have a nuclear weapon and that the uranium is destroyed. Iran has insisted on its right to maintain a nuclear programme.
According to US news site Axios, a deal being discussed does not solve the uranium dispute, but would include an Iranian commitment not to build a nuclear bomb.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
