Iran has ruled out removing its enriched uranium from the country, its Foreign Ministry said on Monday, closing off one of the central demands in the Qatar-mediated talks aimed at ending the war with the United States.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said transferring enriched nuclear materials out of Iran is “categorically off the table”, insisting there is no justification for such a measure. He said Tehran would not make concessions on the issue during any future negotiations over its nuclear programme.

Baghaei made the comments in an interview with the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen news network, in which he said the exit of highly enriched uranium stockpiles “is not on the agenda at all” in the current talks with Washington.

A hardened position

The statement hardens a position already set out by Iran's top security official. On 20 October, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said that “not a single gram of enriched uranium will be removed from Iran”, describing the stockpile as a national asset for domestic use.

Before the US and Israeli strikes in June 2025, Iran held about 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, according to the Institute for Science and International Security, citing data from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Weapons-grade enrichment is 90 percent.

US officials have pushed for the stockpile to be removed or for Iran's enrichment capacity to be cut sharply. Vice President JD Vance has demanded what he called a “meaningful” reduction in enrichment capacity, while President Donald Trump has said Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

Inspections dispute

Baghaei also criticised continued US threats against Iranian nuclear facilities, arguing that they undermine the case for inspections at sites that have sustained damage in the war.

“Under current circumstances, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) possesses no mechanism or protocol for inspecting nuclear facilities that have been damaged,” he said.

The remarks underline how far apart the two sides remain on the nuclear question, even as diplomacy continues through Qatari mediators. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said Iran has formally submitted a seven-day roadmap to end the war, under which the Strait of Hormuz would reopen and nuclear talks would resume within a week if Washington agrees. The plan asks the US to lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waive sanctions on Iranian oil sales and release an estimated $12 billion in frozen Iranian assets.

Trump said on Monday, after meeting Qatar's prime minister, that renewed US strikes were “highly unlikely” if negotiations showed progress and produced a strong agreement, while adding that American forces remained “locked and loaded”. He also said there was a “good chance” of a deal and that Tehran was “talking very politely”.

For now, though, the uranium question looks unresolved. Tehran has offered to dilute its stockpile rather than hand it over, according to senior Iranian sources cited in earlier reporting, while Washington has maintained that Iran agreed in principle to surrender the material — a claim Tehran denies. With Baghaei's latest statement, the Foreign Ministry has now publicly closed the door on removal in the current round of talks.