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Kazakhstan has indicated it is willing to take Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched close to weapons-grade levels if the U.S. and Iran reach an agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program, the Financial Times (FT) reported, citing U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi.
Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the FT that Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev expressed his country’s openness to storing the stockpile during a meeting in Astana this week.
The fate of Iran’s estimated 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% purity remains one of the most difficult issues in U.S.-Iran talks aimed at extending a fragile cease-fire and ending the war launched by U.S.-Israeli attacks.
U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded that Iran accept it will not have a nuclear weapon and that the uranium be destroyed or transferred out of the country.
Iran has insisted on its right to maintain a nuclear program, which it says is for peaceful civilian purposes.
According to Axios, a deal under discussion would not resolve the uranium dispute immediately, but would include an Iranian commitment not to build a nuclear bomb.
People briefed on the proposal told the FT that Iran could commit to discussing either diluting or transferring the material as part of a deal to extend the cease-fire by 60 days, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and set a framework for nuclear talks.
Grossi said Kazakhstan could be a possible storage location because the IAEA already has a bank for low-enriched uranium there.
“We have a place where this could be stored safely,” Grossi told the FT.
He said such an arrangement “could be” acceptable to both the U.S. and Iran, though the fate of the stockpile would be determined only in nuclear talks expected to follow any memorandum of understanding.
Trump said on Truth Social this week that the highly enriched uranium must be turned over to the U.S. or destroyed in place, or at another acceptable location, with nuclear authorities witnessing the process.
He also said he would not be comfortable with Russia or China taking the stockpile.
The 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium is believed to be beneath the rubble of Iran’s three main nuclear facilities: Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan, which the U.S. bombed after briefly joining Israel’s 12-day war against Iran last June.
The material would be enough to produce about 10 weapons if further enriched to 90%, according to the FT.
Iran also has more than 9,000 kilograms of uranium enriched to much lower levels.
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