Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says that while it is “difficult,” transferring Iran’s enriched uranium abroad is “not impossible.”
Grossi’s remarks come as the fate of Iran’s highly enriched uranium reserves has become a central issue in ongoing talks between Tehran and Washington. Iranian officials have called the US demand that Tehran give up its enriched uranium “excessive” and said they will not give in to it.
Iran is estimated to have about 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to about 60 percent. Grossi previously said that Iran’s uranium stockpile had largely remained intact and in the same place after US and Israeli air strikes on the country’s nuclear facilities in 2025.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Grossi said that transferring Iran’s highly enriched uranium abroad was “not easy, because this is in gas form, and this is highly contaminant, and it is not an easy operation.”
Grossi also added that several other options are being considered, including “downblending” the uranium to a lower level of enrichment. Kazakhstan has also been mentioned as a possible storage location.
US President Donald Trump has called Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium, which are buried in nuclear facilities, “nuclear dust” and has repeatedly said that the United States must acquire these stocks.
However, in Trump’s latest comments on the matter, made during a recent trip to China, Trump said that he did not think the United States removing enriched uranium from Iran was necessary and that it was more of a “public relations” move.
“We were thinking about doing it early on, but it would take time, it would take about a week and a half. And that's a long time to be in enemy territory,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News on May 14.
