Iran's top security chief has shut the door on a key American demand, telling Pakistan's visiting army chief in Tehran on Tuesday that Iran's enriched nuclear material is staying exactly where it is. "All enriched nuclear material will remain in Iran, and not a single particle will leave the country," Major General Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, told Field Marshal Asim Munir, according to Iranian state television. "This material is a great asset and national wealth for the Iranian people to use domestically."
Rezaei delivered the same message in public, writing on X that "not a single gram of enriched uranium will be removed from Iran." He said there will be no negotiations with Washington until the United States takes steps to build trust — a process, he said, that "must begin with the full fulfillment of all Iran's conditions." Iranian officials say the country's people and leadership are united on the point, and that Tehran does not trust America not to attack again if talks resume.
President Masoud Pezeshkian gave Munir the same answer in his own meeting with the Pakistani chief. "The Americans must first remove the threats and sanctions; only then can we engage in dialogue," Pezeshkian said. "Today, our nation does not trust America. It believes that if we enter the negotiations, they (the Americans) will attack us again." According to reports, Washington's latest proposal demands that Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium — enriched to 60 percent, close to the 90 percent needed for a weapon — be transferred abroad, the very idea Tehran is now ruling out completely. Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's chief negotiator, told Munir there is nothing new to discuss until Washington meets the seven conditions Tehran set last month, tied to reopening the Strait of Hormuz under the June Islamabad Memorandum. "We have nothing new to say; America cannot gain Iran's trust unless it fulfils the seven conditions," Ghalibaf said, adding that "threats and military manoeuvres cannot influence Iran's strategic decisions." The conditions include an end to the war on all fronts, an end to the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, the lifting of sanctions on Iran's oil exports, the unfreezing of Iranian assets abroad, an end to US interference in Iran's internal affairs and an end to American attacks on Iranian territory.
Munir's trip was Pakistan's latest attempt to mediate an end to the eight-month war. It was his fifth visit to Iran since June, this time accompanied by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, and he met Pezeshkian, Ghalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Rezaei — but the meetings ended with no agreement and no breakthrough announced. Pakistan brokered the April ceasefire and hosted the direct talks that produced the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding in June, only for that deal to collapse within weeks as fighting resumed. Munir did announce one concrete result: the Iran–Pakistan border problem has been resolved, and crossings reopened on Tuesday morning.
The deadlock sits on top of a war that began on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran in the middle of nuclear negotiations, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was succeeded by his son Mojtaba Khamenei. The 40-day war that followed spiralled across the region and shut the Strait of Hormuz, and US strikes on Iranian territory have continued sporadically since the June memorandum fell apart.
Tehran also appears to be in no hurry for political reasons. Three senior Iranian officials and an Iranian insider told Reuters that Iran has deliberately drawn out the talks to weaken President Donald Trump ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, determined not to hand him a political victory. Trump has said the United States will not bomb Iran again before November 3, but Iranian officials say they expect further attacks could come after that date — one senior official said Iran "is preparing for renewed Israeli and US attacks, not for a deal with America to end the war." On Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth discussed Iran with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an unannounced visit to Israel.
Dragging the talks out is costing Iran heavily at home. Annual inflation hit 73.6 percent in September, according to the Statistical Centre of Iran, and the rial has fallen nearly 35 percent against the dollar since Washington reimposed its naval blockade in July. Iran's seaborne crude exports fell to zero in the second week of September and were still there as of October 5, according to energy intelligence platform Vortexa — cutting off the regime's main source of money while public patience wears thin.
Washington, for its part, is not offering the concessions Tehran wants. Vice President JD Vance said this month that Iran must make a "meaningful" reduction in its uranium enrichment capacity to satisfy US demands and end the war, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday described the prospects of an agreement as "extremely difficult," saying economic pressure on Iran will continue. For now, both sides are holding their positions — and the enriched uranium at the heart of the fight is staying in Iran.
Join our Telegram channel and get every article link the second it’s published.