AZE.US
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that around 440 kilograms of enriched uranium in Iran are currently buried under rubble following recent strikes on the country’s nuclear facilities.
In an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation, Araghchi confirmed that the material referenced in international reports had been located at sites that were attacked.
“We have not declared it ourselves – this was verified and declared by the agency. This is not a secret. The agency has stated in many reports the exact amount of our enriched nuclear material,” he said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Asked about the current location of the uranium stockpile, Araghchi replied:
“They are under the rubble. Our nuclear facilities were attacked, and everything is under the rubble.”
According to the Iranian foreign minister, it may technically be possible to recover the material in the future, but only under international supervision.
“Of course there is the possibility to retrieve them, but under the supervision of the agency. If one day we come to the conclusion to do that, it would be under the supervision of the agency,” he said.
For now, however, Tehran has no immediate plans to recover the uranium.
“For the time being, we have no program and no plan to recover them from under the rubble,” Araghchi added.
The Iranian minister also said that before the escalation of the conflict Tehran had been prepared to make concessions during negotiations with the United States, including lowering the enrichment level of the material.
“I offered that we are ready to dilute that enriched material, or down-blend it into a lower percentage. That was a big concession in order to prove that Iran has never wanted nuclear weapons and would never want them,” Araghchi said.