Vladimir Putin couldn’t make an offer Donald Trump would not refuse? During a phone call with Trump this week, Putin proposed that Russia take custody of Iran’s enriched uranium as part of a broader deal linked to end the ongoing war, while leveraging the shifting dynamics in the Middle East, according to Axios report.
According to a scoop by Axios, Trump declined the proposal.
The situation in Middle East escalated after Donald Trump launched a ruthless mission against the Tehran regime led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was later killed. Long frustrated with Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the American-Israeli military offensive targeted key nuclear and military sites, leaving Iran weakened and enraged and triggering a wave of retaliatory attacks across the Gulf region.
Securing Iran’s 450 kilograms of 60%-enriched uranium, which can be converted to weapons-grade material within weeks and is enough for more than 10 nuclear bombs, remains one of the key objectives for the United States and Israel in the ongoing conflict.
In theory, a proposal by Russian President Vladimir Putin could help remove Iran’s nuclear stockpile without requiring US or Israeli troops on the ground. The idea involves Russia taking custody of the enriched uranium.
Russia already possesses advanced nuclear capabilities and had previously stored Iran’s low-enriched uranium under the 2015 nuclear deal, making it one of the few countries with the technical capacity to handle such material.
Putin reportedly raised several ideas during a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Monday about ending the war between the United States and Iran. The uranium custody proposal was one of the suggestions.
"This is not the first time it was offered. It hasn't been accepted. The US position is we need to see the uranium secured," a US official told Axios.
Russia had floated similar proposals during US-Iran nuclear negotiations last May, before the United States and Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, and again in the weeks leading up to the current war.
During the final round of talks before the conflict broke out, Iran rejected the idea of transferring the uranium abroad. Instead, Tehran proposed diluting the enriched uranium within its own facilities under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
It remains unclear whether Iran would be willing to accept such a proposal now.
"The president talks to everyone — Xi, Putin, the Europeans, and he's always willing to make a deal. But it has to be a good deal. The president doesn't make bad deals," the United States official said.
Meanwhile, the United States and Israel have also discussed the possibility of sending special forces into Iran at a later stage of the war to secure the nuclear stockpile, according to earlier Axios reporting.
US secretary of defense Pete Hegseth said at a press conference on Friday that the United States "has a range of options" to take control of Iran’s highly enriched uranium.
Hegseth added that one possible option would be for Iran to voluntarily surrender the stockpile, a move the United States "would welcome."
"They weren't willing to do that in negotiations. I would never tell this group or the world what we're willing to do or how far we're willing to go — but we have options, for sure," he said.
Trump, however, suggested that securing the enriched uranium is not currently the top priority. "We are not focused on that, but at some point we might be," he said.
The US president also acknowledged for the first time that Russia may be assisting Iran during the conflict, following reports that Moscow had provided intelligence that could help target US forces.
"I think [Putin] might be helping them a little bit, yeah. And he probably thinks we're helping Ukraine, right?" Trump said in a Fox interview.
"So he says that, and China would say the same thing. It's like, hey, they do it and we do it, in all fairness."