Iran's Foreign Ministry on Friday stressed the country's stockpile of enriched uranium would not be transferred "anywhere", after US President Donald Trump said that the Islamic Republic had agreed to hand it over.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told Iranian state media that "the transfer of uranium to the US has not been presented as an option."
He stressed, “Iran’s enriched uranium is as sacred to us as the soil of Iran and will under no circumstances be transferred anywhere."
On the negotiations with the United States, Baghaei said that "the lifting of sanctions is of great importance to us, compensation for the damages incurred is a particular priority for Iran."
Trump told CBS News in an interview earlier on Friday that Iran has "agreed to everything" and will cooperate with the United States to remove its enriched uranium from the country.
Trump made clear that the operation will not involve American ground troops. When asked who would retrieve the material, he responded only with "our people."
"No. No troops," he said. "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."
The President added that the enriched uranium would ultimately be brought to the United States.
"Our people, together with the Iranians, are going to work together to go get it. And then we'll take it to the United States," he said.
Trump refuted an earlier Axios report, which stated that the Trump administration was discussing the possible release of $20 billion in frozen Iranian assets in exchange for the nuclear stockpile.
"No, we are not paying 10 cents," he said firmly.
On Thursday, Trump said that the war in Iran should be coming to an end “pretty soon".
“We're doing very well, and I will say the war in Iran is going along swimmingly, we can do whatever we want, and it should be ending pretty soon," the President stated at an event in Las Vegas.
“It was perfect. It’s perfect. It was the power we have," the President added. “We had the most powerful military anywhere in the world."
He stated that while he did not want to strike Iran, “we had to because we can't let them have a nuclear weapon. Can't let them have a nuclear weapon."
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)