Iran President Says US Demanded Handover of All Enriched Nuclear Material

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – As his high-stakes diplomatic mission to New York concluded, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian revealed on Saturday the stark and uncompromising nature of the American position in the nuclear standoff, declaring that Washington had demanded Tehran hand over its entire stockpile of enriched uranium in exchange for a mere three-month reprieve from crippling UN sanctions.

In a parting shot before his departure, Pezeshkian flatly rejected the proposal as "by no means acceptable," a characterization that laid bare the vast and seemingly unbridgeable chasm between the two adversaries and solidified the grim reality that a new and punishing era of international pressure on Iran was now inevitable.

The Iranian president's disclosure, made to reporters in New York and carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP), came as a diplomatic deadline expired at the end of Saturday, triggering the automatic "snapback" of a raft of UN sanctions that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal.

The reimposition of these measures, initiated by the European powers of Britain, France, and Germany (the E3) over what they deemed Tehran's non-compliance with the accord, marked the definitive collapse of Pezeshkian's efforts to stave off a severe economic and political crisis for his country.

"The United States wants us to hand over all our enriched uranium to them, and in return they would give us three months exemption from sanctions," Pezeshkian stated, his words painting a picture of a negotiation that was, from Tehran's perspective, a non-starter.

Pezeshkian's diplomatic offensive in New York, a first for an Iranian leader on such a global stage since the devastating 12-day war with Israel and the United States in June, was a complex and often contradictory performance.

As previously detailed by Kurdistan24, he sought to project an image of moderation and conciliation to a skeptical Western audience, even as he was tightly constrained by the immovable hardline doctrine dictated by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Throughout a series of high-profile interviews with American media, he walked a fine line, at times extending a conditional olive branch for peaceful coexistence with Israel, only to pivot to blistering denunciations of the Israeli government and defiant warnings that Tehran is "not afraid of war."

In an interview with Martha MacCallum of Fox News, when asked if he could envision a future of peace between Iran and Israel, he offered a tentative "of course," but immediately qualified it with a sharp critique. "But the issue is those who are ruling, governing there now, are committing genocide," he asserted, accusing Israel of operating outside all "international accepted frameworks of laws and human rights."

When confronted with evidence of Iran's own aggressive actions through regional proxies, Pezeshkian dismissed the accusations as "propaganda propagated by Israel."

He struck a similarly defiant chord in an extensive interview with Tom Llamas of "NBC Nightly News," warning that President Donald Trump's current path could "set fire to the entire region" and insisting that while Iran would "never be starting any wars," it would deliver the "strongest answer" to any attack.

The central and most urgent issue of the visit was, however, the nuclear file. Pezeshkian was confronted during his NBC News interview with a recent Washington Post report, based on commercial satellite imagery, showing renewed construction at a mysterious, deeply buried underground site near Natanz, dubbed "Pickaxe Mountain," since the June bombing campaign.

He dismissed the evidence as "purported satellite photography" and publicly invited international inspectors to visit the site. "If they are really telling the truth... we have come to an agreement, most recently, with the IAEA. They can come and inspect on the ground," he said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

However, this public offer of transparency was heavily undermined by the diplomatic realities unfolding in parallel. Reports from Asharq Al Awsat and Reuters confirmed that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had already warned that Tehran would scrap its recent inspection agreement with the IAEA if the UN sanctions were reinstated.

Furthermore, Asharq Al Awsat, citing The Guardian, revealed that a last-ditch Iranian offer to the E3 to allow inspectors access to only one of its bombed nuclear sites in exchange for a permanent lifting of the sanctions threat had been rejected.

Pezeshkian's authority to make any meaningful concessions was, in fact, severely curtailed before he even landed in New York. As reported by The Associated Press, just as the Iranian delegation was heading to the U.S., Supreme Leader Khamenei delivered a speech in which he rejected any direct nuclear talks with America, branding the U.S. position a "diktat, an imposition," not a negotiation.

This declaration effectively hamstrung Pezeshkian, leaving him with little room to maneuver. A European diplomat, speaking to the AP, confirmed that the talks in New York "did not produce any new developments, any new results," and that the snapback would proceed as planned.

The Iranian president also addressed sensitive domestic issues, particularly the rights of women, a subject of intense international scrutiny since the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the "morality police."

In his interview with NBC News, he made a notable declaration that "human beings have a right to choose," and admitted to "inappropriate management" of the ensuing protests. In his Fox News interview, however, he presented a more conservative framing, stating that while his government would defend equal rights, "we must respect the norms and traditions of a society."

Ultimately, Pezeshkian's trip to New York was a portrait of a leader caught in an impossible bind. As Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group summarized for NBC News, "More than a year into office, the limits of significant shifts within a system trapped in half-measures are clear."

With the UN Security Council having voted against a Russian and Chinese resolution to delay the snapback, Pezeshkian returned to Iran empty-handed, his country now facing a new and punishing wave of sanctions that will target everything from Iran's conventional arms trade to its banking and financial sectors. His final, stark revelation about the American demand for all of Iran's enriched uranium served as a grim epitaph for a diplomatic mission that failed to alter the course of a confrontation that now appears destined to enter a new and more perilous phase.