Iran has told Pakistan that it is willing to surrender a portion of its enriched uranium to a third nation as part of Islamabad's attempts to resolve the Iran-US war, according to a report by Al Arabiya.
This comes after Mohsin Naqvi, Pakistan's interior minister, met Eskandar Momeni, Iran's interior minister, on Friday. The two met while attending a meeting of interior ministers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
According to a statement from the Pakistani Interior Ministry, they talked about "issues of de-escalation and internal security" in addition to the most recent regional scenario.
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As Pakistan works to arbitrate a deal between the US and Iran to stop the war, which started on Feb. 28, Naqvi has participated in talks with Tehran.
The Guardian reported that a few days ago, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted that Iran had consented to negotiate parts of its nuclear program that it had refused to discuss even a month prior, despite Tehran's announcement that it was ending peace negotiations and taking steps to completely close the Strait of Hormuz.
Rather than completely halting its nuclear program, Iran's conditional delivery of uranium would include a multi-stage truce and a long-term freeze.
The main point of contention in the negotiations is money. Iran is requesting that frozen assets — roughly $20 billion, according to reports — be released. In the past, the US has insisted that money cannot be disbursed unless a definitive agreement and compliance are reached.
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According to reports, Tehran would prefer to move stockpiles to a nation like Russia rather than give the highly enriched material to the US directly.
Although the US has repeatedly demanded that the highly enriched stocks be eliminated, destroyed, or subject to stringent international oversight, the mechanism and sequencing specifics continue to be a significant obstacle.
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