The Guardian reported that Tehran was expected to reject a US proposal to transfer its stockpile of enriched uranium to a third country such as Russia as part of an agreement that Washington is seeking to scale back Iran's nuclear programme.
When asked at a daily briefing if Russia would accept Iran's uranium reserves and if Tehran had discussed this with Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, "I will leave that question without comment."
US President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that Iran was "fairly close" to acquiring a nuclear weapon and has threatened to bomb it unless it reaches an agreement to prevent that. Iran strongly rejects seeking nuclear weapons.
Russia, which signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran in January, says Tehran has the right to peaceful nuclear energy and that any use of military force against it would be illegal and unacceptable.
Iran and the US held talks in the Omani capital last Saturday, with Oman's foreign minister functioning as the mediator, according to Press TV.
The Islamic Republic has asserted that the talks were solely aimed at addressing the US’s illegal and unilateral sanctions against the country, and various aspects of the Iranian nuclear energy program, strongly rejecting speculation about the process’s involving other issues.
The United States lifted some of the sanctions as per the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a historical 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. Washington, however, returned the bans three years after conclusion of the deal, and even began piling up more coercive measures on the Islamic Republic. The US has termed the adversarial approach as “maximum pressure,” which has also seen American officials’ repeatedly threatening to use military force against the Iranian soil.
The Islamic Republic has, meanwhile, underscored that any direct negotiations with the US were neither useful nor acceptable for Tehran as long as Washington retained its hostile policies.
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