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Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed transferring Iran’s enriched uranium to Russia during a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump this week, but the American leader rejected the idea, according to Axios.
Sources told the outlet that during the conversation on Monday, Putin presented several proposals aimed at ending the conflict between the United States and Iran. One of them involved transporting about 450 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% from Iran to Russia.
According to U.S. officials, the proposal was not accepted.
“This proposal was not made for the first time. It was not accepted. The U.S. position is that we need to ensure the uranium remains secured,” one American official said.
Experts note that 60% enriched uranium can be further processed into weapons-grade material within weeks and that the amount in question could be enough to produce more than ten nuclear bombs.
Axios reports that Moscow had previously floated a similar proposal during U.S.–Iran nuclear negotiations in May 2025, before the United States and Israel struck Iranian nuclear facilities in June. Another similar idea was reportedly discussed weeks before the current conflict began.
Alternative proposals
During the last round of talks before the war, Iran rejected the idea of transferring its uranium abroad and instead proposed diluting the material at its own facilities under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. It remains unclear whether Tehran would accept such an arrangement now.
A U.S. official said Trump is speaking with multiple global leaders — including Xi Jinping, Putin, and European leaders — in search of a potential agreement.
Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington has “a number of options” for securing Iran’s highly enriched uranium. One of them would be the voluntary transfer of the stockpile by Iran, which the United States would welcome.
Axios also previously reported that the U.S. and Israel had discussed the possibility of sending special forces into Iran later in the conflict to secure nuclear materials.
Earlier, Trump said Washington had not made a decision on a potential operation to seize highly enriched uranium from an underground facility in Isfahan.
At the same time, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff reportedly told a private meeting that any future deal with Iran must indefinitely restrict Tehran’s nuclear program.
