Iran's Security Chief Says No Enriched Uranium Will Leave the Country

Iran is determined to keep its uranium, and according to Al Jazeera, Tehran has "nothing new" to tell Washington after the latest nuclear proposals reportedly offered by mediators. The development comes as diplomatic meetings multiply and the odds of renewed war are reported to be rising.

The United States and Israel have been at war with Iran since February 28, 2026, when the Trump administration launched military action partly over Iran's nuclear programme. Iran has said the war will not end, and the Strait of Hormuz waterway will not reopen, until Washington accepts Tehran's conditions. In late September, US and Iranian officials each spoke separately with mediators in a renewed effort to end the seven-month conflict.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the body that advises the country's leadership on security policy, said late on Tuesday that "not a single gram of enriched uranium will be removed from Iran." He made the remark after meeting Pakistan's army chief, Asim Munir, who was in Tehran on Wednesday to discuss the war and recent tensions in Yemen. Rezaei did not rule out diluting highly enriched uranium inside Iran under monitor supervision, an option Iran had offered before. Dilution lowers the purity of enriched material. Rezaei also described Iran's nuclear programme as "national wealth."

Iran has long said it enriches uranium only for peaceful purposes and has demanded that Washington acknowledge its right to do so. The US position has shifted in emphasis rather than in its core demand. US Vice President JD Vance suggested earlier in October that a "meaningful" reduction in Iran's enrichment capacity may satisfy US demands.

Other diplomacy is also under way. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in Tehran on Monday, October 19, after attending a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting a day earlier. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was reported to have met Israeli security officials earlier in the same week.

The core technical question is the stockpile itself. Before the June 2025 Israeli and US attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog, estimated that Tehran possessed 440 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60 percent. Iran has refused IAEA inspectors access to its nuclear facilities since the 2026 war began, so the size, condition and whereabouts of much of that stockpile remain unverified.