President Trump on Monday outlined options for the fate of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile if both countries sign on to a peace agreement currently under negotiation with Tehran.
“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 wrote on Truth Social.
The U.S. has long maintained that Iran should dismantle its nuclear program and give up its enriched uranium stockpile. The issue has remained a sticking point during the latest set of talks in Qatar, where both sides are closing in on a deal that would end the conflict and gradually reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump, since the onset of the conflict in February, has suggested that the U.S. would take Iran’s “nuclear dust,” a nontechnical term for enriched uranium. He also previously mulled deploying ground troops to remove the uranium.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) used the term on Sunday, praising the Trump administration’s efforts during the latest round of negotiations.
“We’ll take care of the nuclear dust,” Johnson told “Fox & Friends Weekend.” “We’ll get the Strait of Hormuz reopened, which will be great for gas prices here and stability around the world, and that’s why all the regional allies are following U.S. leadership under President Trump.”
Trump has frequently said Iran cannot possess or create a nuclear weapon while criticizing the Obama-era nuclear deal that restricted Tehran’s enriched uranium stockpile. The president dissolved his predecessor’s agreement in 2018.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said Monday that the fate of Iran’s nuclear material has not been part of the talks, with the “focus of the negotiations is on ending the war and at this stage,” The Associated Press reported.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, told Iranian state television on Sunday that his country was ready “to assure the world that we are not after a nuclear weapon.” Other Iranian officials in the past have said the nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes.
U.S. forces struck Iranian nuclear facilities prior to the latest ceasefire. Two facilities — the Ardakan yellowcake production plant in Yazd and the Shahid Khondab Heavy Water Complex in Arak — were targeted in March, according to state media.
The nuclear facilities were the primary targets during the U.S. and Israel’s initial attacks on Iran in June of last year, after which Trump claimed the facilities were “obliterated.”
