'Putin tells Iran to accept US nuclear deal supporting zero enrichment'

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Vladimir Putin has allegedly told Iran to accept a US nuclear deal in which they would be unable to enrich uranium.
The Russian President is said to have told both Donald Trump and Iranian officials that he supports the deal, despite Russia being one of the Middle Eastern country's key allies.
American news site, Axios, claim three European officials and one Israeli official, who have knowledge of the discussions, have said that Moscow has encouraged the stance and that Putin also informed French President Emmanuel Macron.
A European official reportedly told the site: 'Putin would support zero enrichment. He encouraged the Iranians to work towards that in order to make negotiations with the Americans more favorable. The Iranians said they won't consider it.'
And an Israeli official allegedly added: 'We know this is what Putin told the Iranians.'
However, Iran's semi-official news agency, Tasnim, denied the report, quoting an 'informed source' as saying Putin had not sent any message to Iran in this regard.
The US have been trying to broker a deal with Iran after Trump said they 'cannot have a nuclear weapon' and launched strikes on three of the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities.
However, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last month that the country not having the ability to enrich uranium - used to fuel nuclear power plants and atomic warheads - was '100 per cent' against their best interests.
Axios claim their sources close to the negotiations have said that Russia would supply Iran with 3.67 per cent of its uranium, which it would remove, for nuclear power, if a deal is brokered.
It is also alleged that they would provide Iran with 'small quantities' of 20 per cent enriched uranium for their Tehran research reactor and the 'production of nuclear isotopes'.
They additionally reported that US envoy Steve Witkoff has been in discussions about resuming nuclear negotiations in the coming days, after plans to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in the Norwegian capital of Oslo were scrapped.
The reports about Putin's new stance come just weeks after the Russian President vowed to back Iran and condemned 'groundless' aggression against its ally after the US joined Israel in striking nuclear facilities last month.
'This is an absolutely unprovoked aggression against Iran,' Putin told Araghchi, who travelled to Moscow seeking support in mediation.
Putin called the strikes 'unjustified' and added that Russia was ' making efforts to provide assistance to the Iranian people.'
The Russian President did not single out the US attacks, talking instead broadly of 'strikes' against Iran, though the Kremlin had earlier said it condemned and regretted the US strikes.
'There has been a new escalation of tensions in the region, and, of course, we condemn this and express our deep regret in this regard,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, shortly before Putin met Araghchi in the Kremlin.
Araghchi thanked Putin for condemning the US strikes on Iran, telling him Russia stood on 'the right side of history'.
The crisis violently escalated last month when the United States sent a fleet of stealth bombers to attack nuclear facilities across Iran.
Israel initiated the conflict with unilateral strikes against Iran, citing concerns the regime was trying to build a nuclear bomb, which Iran has consistently denied.