President Donald Trump has vowed that the United States will eventually recover Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium despite comments from Iran that it will not hand over the material.
"We will get it. We don't need it, we don't want it. We'll probably destroy it after we get it, but we're not going to let them have it," Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
Trump reiterated that the US will not let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
"Right now, we're negotiating, and we'll see, but we're going to get it one way or the other. They're not going to have a nuclear weapon," he said.
Trump also said that the US opposes any tolls on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and vowed that Iran will not be allowed to retain highly enriched uranium.
"We don't want tolls. It's an international waterway. They're not charging tolls right now," Trump said.
Trump claimed Iran is suffering major financial losses because of restrictions on shipping activity.
Trump said the US is monitoring reported negotiations between Iran and Oman over possible tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, while asserting that US forces maintain complete control over maritime traffic in the strategic waterway.
‘Enriched uranium must stay in Iran’
Iran's supreme leader has issued a directive that the country's near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources said, hardening Tehran's stance on one of the main US demands at peace talks.
Mojtaba Khamenei's order could further frustrate US President Donald Trump and complicate talks on ending the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Israeli officials told Reuters that Trump assured Israel any peace deal would require Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile to leave the country, amid longstanding Western accusations that Tehran’s uranium enrichment programme could support nuclear weapons development — a claim Iran denies.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not consider the war over until enriched uranium is removed from Iran, Tehran ends its support for proxy militias, and its ballistic missile capabilities are eliminated.
"The Supreme Leader’s directive, and the consensus within the establishment, is that the stockpile of enriched uranium should not leave the country,” said one of the two Iranian sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Iran's top officials, the sources said, believe that sending the material abroad would leave the country more vulnerable to future attacks by the United States and Israel. Khamenei has the last say on the most important state matters.
Iran's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Regional tensions escalated after US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation targeting Israel, Gulf states and the Strait of Hormuz, before a Pakistan-mediated ceasefire took effect on April 8 and was later extended indefinitely by Trump despite continued shipping restrictions.
