Thursday 09 / April / 2026
The head of Iran's nuclear agency has ruled out accepting any restrictions to the country's uranium enrichment program when peace talks with the United States begin in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Friday.
"The claims and demands of our enemies to restrict Iran's enrichment program are merely wishes that will be buried," said Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, during commemorations for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Thursday.
Acknowledgement of Iran's "right" to enrich uranium is one of the items listed in Tehran's ten-point plan for a permanent ceasefire. "It is one of the necessary [aspects] that nobody is talking about," Eslami said.
Iran's nuclear program: what do we know?
Iran began developing nuclear infrastructure in the 1960s and a program of uranium enrichment in the 1970s. It insists its enrichment of uranium is purely peaceful and geared solely towards nuclear energy for civilian use.
Regular nuclear power plants require uranium to be enriched to levels between 3.5 and 5%, as opposed to weapons-grade uranium which is enriched to over 90%. As of 2025, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran had just over 400 kilograms (882 lbs.) of 60% enriched uranium and estimated that it could potentially produce weapons-grade levels in less than three days.
In June 2025, the White House claimed that "Iran's Nuclear Facilities Have Been Obliterated," claims repeated by US President Donald Trump on numerous occasions since. The New York Times reported last month, however, that US intelligence services believe Iranian supplies of highly-enriched uranium could feasibly be retrieved from the ruins of the nuclear site Isfahan, which was bombed last June.
