KEY POINTS
- Kremlin says Putin is ready to help resolve the US-Iran nuclear standoff using Russia’s close ties with Tehran
- Trump confirmed Putin offered to join talks on Iran’s nuclear programme
- The US and Iran have held five rounds of talks since April
- Uranium enrichment remains a major sticking point
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to “help resolve” the standoff between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear programme, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
“We have a close partnership with Tehran. And President Putin said that he was ready to use this partnership to help resolve the Iranian nuclear issue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
After a call between the leaders on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said Putin had offered to “participate” in talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme, as Trump accused Iran of “slow-walking” its response to Washington’s offer of a deal.
“President Putin suggested that he will participate in the discussions with Iran and that he could, perhaps, be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion,” Trump said on his Truth Social network after a phone call with Putin.
Washington and Tehran have held five rounds of talks since April to thrash out a new accord to replace the nuclear deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
Putin told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian that Moscow was ready to help advance talks on a nuclear deal, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.
Iran’s enrichment of uranium
Trump said Monday that his administration would not allow “any” enrichment of uranium, despite Tehran’s insistence that it has the right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said earlier on Wednesday that Washington’s proposal was against Tehran’s national interest.
The Kremlin said earlier this week that Tehran had the “right” to run a peaceful nuclear energy programme.
The US and Iran continue to negotiate the details of a possible new nuclear deal. The issue of uranium enrichment has remained a sticking point in the talks, with the US reportedly demanding a complete halt or low-level enrichment in exchange for the lifting of Western sanctions against Tehran.
On Tuesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Tehran “would not abandon” the country’s scientific and nuclear rights, while disavowing nuclear weapons.
He said that those accusing Iran “are proliferating” weapons of mass destruction and destabilising the region with deadly weapons.
Iran ramps up production of enriched uranium
US envoy Steve Witkoff, who heads the American delegation in talks with Iran, has said President Donald Trump opposes Tehran continuing any enrichment, calling it a “red line”.
A leaked United Nations report shows that Iran has ramped up production of enriched uranium near weapons-grade by 50 percent in the last three months. It is still short, however, of the roughly 90 percent required for atomic weapons, but still significantly above the 4 percent or so needed for power production.
Iran, however, has rejected the latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying it is “politically motivated and repeated baseless accusations”.
