In an interview on Iranian state TV, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei denied that Iran would hand over its enriched uranium to the U.S. as President Donald Trump has said.
“Iran’s enriched uranium is not going to be transferred anywhere under any circumstances,” he said.
“The issue of transferring 60% enriched uranium to the U.S. has not been raised as an option by us. There are various options for resolving the issues that are part of our nuclear file, but as I said, transferring Iran’s enriched materials to the United States has never been an option,” he added.
The White House is countering claims by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz will need permission. On Friday, the White House reiterated that the Strait is “completely open for business.”
“As President Trump said, the Strait of Hormuz is completely open for business, and Iran has agreed to never close the Strait again,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement. “Thanks to the United States’ successful blockade of Iranian ports, the United States also maintains maximum leverage in negotiations to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat for good.”
On Friday morning, two dozen ships commenced their journey toward the strait, as announced by Trump and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. They declared the reopening of the strait. However, according to data from MarineTraffic, most of the ships appeared to reverse course and head back into the Persian Gulf.
Trump continued to tout the progress between the U.S. and Iran on Friday, telling reporters that the two countries have had “some very good discussions.”
“We’ve done a good job, but we’ll see,” Trump said.
“Talks are going on and will go on over the weekend, and a lot of good things are happening,” Trump continued, adding, “That includes Lebanon, too.”
Trump acknowledged that there “could” still be differences that the U.S. and Iran need to work out, despite saying earlier Friday that Iran has “agreed to everything.”
“Well, there could be,” Trump said when asked to respond to reports of Iran claiming the two countries still have significant differences. “Let’s see what happens. If there are, we’ll have to straighten it out. But I don’t think there’s too many significant differences.”
