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U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium would either be transferred to the United States for destruction or eliminated under international oversight. He made the statement as negotiations to finalize an agreement to end the stalled U.S.-Israeli war with Iran move closer to completion.
“The enriched uranium (nuclear dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent, being witness to this process and event,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
The comments came as diplomatic efforts intensified to finalize an agreement aimed at ending hostilities between the United States, Israel and Iran.
Earlier on Monday, Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that a U.S.-Iran agreement was “close to being reached,” according to Chinese state media, as Islamabad stepped up mediation efforts between Tehran and Washington.
Munir made the remarks during a meeting in Beijing held alongside Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s official visit to China, the China Daily said, citing the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Munir briefed Wang on developments related to Pakistan’s role in the negotiations aimed at easing tensions between Iran and the United States.
The Pakistani army chief traveled to Beijing after visiting Tehran last week, where he held talks with Iranian officials.
According to the report, Munir said Pakistan was willing to “continue making every effort” to facilitate an agreement and expressed hope that China would assume a larger role in the process.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that an agreement to end the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran would take “a couple days” to finalize despite progress in negotiations.
“I think there's strong alignment and agreement on what a preliminary draft should look like. I think, like anything with something like this, it's going to take a couple of days to settle on, even down to the disagreements over a word, sentence,” Rubio told reporters en route to New Delhi.
“If there's going to be a deal, we're going to have to work through that, but this is, you know, it's either going to be a good deal, or there isn't going to be one,” he added.
Rubio also criticized Iran’s efforts to restrict commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
“There's no country in the world that's in favor of the tolling system, except the regime in Iran. So that's not acceptable. That cannot happen,” Rubio said.
“The straits need to be open, unimpeded, without tolls, and obviously that needs to happen,” he added.
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Regional tensions escalated on Feb. 28 when the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran, prompting Tehran to respond with waves of drones and missiles targeting sites across the region while closing the Strait of Hormuz.
A ceasefire took effect on April 8 through Pakistani mediation, but subsequent talks in Islamabad failed to secure a lasting agreement.
Trump later extended the truce indefinitely while maintaining restrictions on vessels traveling to and from Iranian ports through the strategic waterway.
Last week, Trump said the agreement had been “largely negotiated” and was awaiting finalization.
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