US and Israel Demand Removal of Iranian Nuclear Material

The United States and Israel have established the removal of enriched nuclear material from Iran as a threshold condition for ending their joint military campaign. Donald Trump and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz assert that while strikes since June 2025 have dismantled much of Iran's nuclear infrastructure, remaining stockpiles of highly enriched uranium (HEU) could allow Tehran to restart its weapons project.

Russia has proposed a diplomatic compromise, offering to store or reprocess Iran's uranium on Russian soil. Aleksey Likhachev, CEO of Rosatom, cited Russia's history of cooperation with Tehran as a reason for its suitability to manage the material. However, the United States has rejected this proposal, with Donald Trump stating his intention to recover the material and bring it to the U.S. Iran has firmly rejected shipping materials to Washington, describing the stockpile as sacred, though it has expressed gratitude for Russia's diplomatic support.

Despite claims from Benjamin Netanyahu that the program was wiped out, experts warn that sufficient material for 10 to 11 nuclear weapons may still exist in deep underground tunnels in Isfahan and Fordo. U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have warned that if Iran does not hand over the uranium voluntarily, the U.S. may seize it by other means, a task experts suggest would require thousands of troops to secure.