Iranian official says highly enriched uranium “not on the agenda of the negotiations” with U.S.

Speaking on the sidelines of a security forum in Russia’s capital, the Deputy Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Bagheri Kani, said indirect negotiations with Washington continued, but he renewed the regime’s insistence that the issue of its enriched uranium stockpile wasn’t yet on the agenda.

“This issue is not on the agenda of the negotiations,” he said when asked about the roughly 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium that international monitors believe is still buried under one of Iran’s badly damaged nuclear facilities, according to Russian news agency TASS.

President Trump had previously claimed Iran was ready to hand what he refers to as its “nuclear dust” over to the U.S., but on Monday he said the regime could dispose of its highly-enriched uranium inside the country, or “at another acceptable location.”

A senior Trump administration official said over the weekend that Iran had agreed in principle to dispose of its highly-enriched uranium during the negotiations but that officials were still working through details of a mechanism for its disposal.