Iran immediately shut down President Donald Trump’s claim that it had “agreed to everything” the United States demanded, including handing over its enriched uranium.
Instead, Iran’s foreign ministry said on Friday afternoon that its uranium was not going anywhere.
“Iran’s enriched uranium is not going to be transferred anywhere; transferring uranium to the United States has not been an option,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, according to CNN.
“Iran’s enriched uranium is sacred to us like the soil of Iran,” Baghaei added.
Officials in Tehran also disputed Trump’s suggestion that Iran had agreed to an “unlimited” suspension of its nuclear program, reports The Telegraph.
That puts messaging from Tehran and Washington in direct contradiction with each other yet again.
Trump’s seemingly premature victory lap on Friday afternoon, via a phone interview with CBS News and other media outlets, was published just before markets closed for the weekend.
Trump, 79, said the Iranians would work with the U.S. officials to transfer their enriched uranium out of the country—a major sticking point, like the permanent opening of the Strait of Hormuz, in recent peace discussions.
A future uranium transfer would not require American boots on the ground, Trump said. He stopped short of explaining how else it would occur.
“No troops,” he told CBS News. “We’ll go down and get it with them, and then we’ll take it. We’ll be getting it together because by that time, we’ll have an agreement, and there’s no need for fighting when there’s an agreement. Nice right? That’s better. We would have done it the other way if we had to.”
Trump said the uranium would be brought back to the United States.
“Our people, together with the Iranians, are going to work together to go get it,” he told CBS News. “And then we’ll take it to the United States.”
Trump also claimed that Iran agreed to stop backing designated terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.
Reuters reported on Friday afternoon that “significant differences” still separate Tehran and Washington. An Iranian official told the wire service that “no agreement has been reached on the details of the nuclear issues.”
Reuters added that “serious negotiations are required to overcome differences.”
The Iranian official said the Islamic Republic is seeking “compensation for war damages” and the lifting of sanctions, but did not specify the extent of either.
Citing four sources familiar with the matter, Axios reported Friday that U.S. and Iranian officials have discussed unfreezing $20 billion in Iranian assets as part of a peace deal. Trump claimed to CBS News that the report is not true.
“No, we are not paying 10 cents,” he said.
