Kazakhstan open to holding Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, says IAEA chief

Shafaq News- Vienna

Kazakhstan has expressed willingness to receive Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to levels close to those required for weapons production, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi revealed on Friday.

In remarks to the Financial Times, Grossi said Kazakhstan would be prepared to do so if the United States and Iran reach an agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program, adding that the Central Asian country signaled its openness to the idea during a meeting between President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Grossi in Astana earlier this week.

Kazakhstan hosts an internationally supervised low-enriched uranium bank designed to guarantee fuel supplies for nuclear power plants in IAEA member states and help prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The storage facility was established in cooperation with the IAEA and officially opened in 2018.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump insisted that Iran must agree never to obtain a nuclear weapon, claiming that its enriched nuclear material “will be unearthed” and destroyed by the United States in close coordination with Tehran.