Iran's Supreme Leader has issued a directive that the country's near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources said, hardening Tehran's stance on one of the main US demands at peace talks.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei's order could further frustrate US President Donald Trump and complicate talks on ending the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Israeli officials have said that Trump has assured Israel that Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, needed to make an atomic weapon, will be sent out of Iran and that any peace deal must include a clause on this.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not consider the war over until enriched uranium is removed from Iran, and its ballistic missile capabilities are eliminated.
"The Supreme Leader’s directive, and the consensus within the establishment, is that the stockpile of enriched uranium should not leave the country,” said one of the two Iranian sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Iran's top officials, the sources said, believe that sending the material abroad would leave the country more vulnerable to future attacks by the United States and Israel.
The White House and Iran's foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
A shaky ceasefire is in place in the war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
But there has been no big breakthrough in peace efforts, with a US blockade of Iranian ports and Tehran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global oil supply route, complicating negotiations mediated by Pakistan.
The two senior Iranian sources said there was deep suspicion in Iran that the pause in hostilities was a tactical deception by Washington to create a sense of security before it renews air strikes.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's army chief was due in Iran, media reported, with Islamabad mediating as the Islamic republic examines a new US proposal to end the Middle East war.
The expected visit by Field Marshal Asim Munir, a powerful figure with a growing role in Pakistan's foreign relations, comes a day after Trump warned that negotiations to end the war were on the "borderline" between a deal and renewed strikes.
A ceasefire on April 8 halted the war launched weeks earlier by the US and Israel, but negotiation efforts have so far failed to yield a lasting peace agreement.
A war of words has taken the place of open conflict but the impasse continues to weigh on the world economy, leaving everyone from investors to farmers in a painful state of uncertainty.
On Thursday, Iran's ISNA news agency said Munir's visit was aimed at continuing "talks and consultations" with Iranian authorities, without providing details. Other Iranian media carried the same report.
Pakistan hosted in April the only direct negotiations between US and Iranian officials to take place since February 28, the day the war began.
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