Vladimir Putin has offered to take Iran's enriched uranium as part of a peace deal (Image: Getty)
Vladimir Putin's Russia has signalled its readiness to take Iran's enriched uranium as part of a peace deal in the Middle East. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had offered to facilitate peace in the region by "playing a role" in the removal of the uranium, which forms the core of nuclear weapons. While destroying Iran's nuclear programme has been a key goal for Donald Trump in the ongoing conflict, Russian acquisition of the stockpile could significantly dial up the threat posed to the NATO alliance.
Lavrov said: "This role can take on many forms, including reprocessing highly enriched uranium into fuel-grade uranium, transferring a certain amount to Russia for storage. Anything that is acceptable to Iran without, I repeat, violating its inalienable right, like the right of any other state, to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes."
Destroying Iran's nuclear programme has been a key war aim for the US (Image: Getty)
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the offer was "made by President Putin in conversations with both the United States and regional states" and "still stands but has not been acted upon".
It comes after an initial round of talks between Iran and the US in Pakistan last weekend failed to produce an agreement.
An Iranian diplomatic official denied that the negotiations had stalled over Iran's nuclear ambitions, which it has insisted are peaceful while rejecting external limitations.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) maintains that Iran has a stockpile of 440.9kg of uranium enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step away from the weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Russia, which already possesses the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, previously took large amounts of enriched uranium from Iran as part of a 2015 deal between Iran and six nuclear powers aimed at curbing its atomic programme.
Iran's estimated stockpile could allow it to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs if it decides to weaponise its programme, Rafael Grossi, director general of the IAEA warned this week.
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Iran has not allowed the IAEA access to its nuclear facilities bombed by Israel and the US during a 12-day war in June, according to a confidential report circulated to member states and seen by the Associated Press in February.
The report stressed that it "cannot verify whether Iran has suspended all enrichment-related activities" or the "size of Iran's uranium stockpile at the affected nuclear facilities".
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