Russia has renewed its offer to resolve the standoff over Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles, positioning Moscow as a potential broker in nuclear negotiations just as a second round of US-Iran peace talks is being floated.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia could help convert Iran’s highly enriched uranium to fuel grade or store it “in ways acceptable to Iran without infringing its right to peaceful enrichment,” according to Russian state news agency TASS.
Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium — seen as a precursor to building a nuclear weapon — remain the central sticking point in negotiations to end the ongoing West Asia conflict. The US has demanded Iran end its enrichment programme entirely and has insisted on retrieval of an estimated 460 kilograms of highly enriched material believed to be stored underground.
Both sides proposed a suspension of Iranian enrichment during the Islamabad talks last weekend, but President Trump subsequently rejected the idea of a pause, insisting on a complete stop.
Russia previously facilitated the transfer of enriched uranium under the Obama-era JCPOA nuclear deal. Lavrov reaffirmed Iran’s “right to peaceful enrichment,” aligning with Tehran’s position that enrichment is solely for civilian power generation.
The statement came after Lavrov visited China and met President Xi Jinping, with Moscow also offering energy supplies to nations scrambling for alternatives due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. For Sri Lanka, any resolution of the nuclear impasse could ease the energy supply crisis that has driven fuel rationing and inflation across the island.
