US Says It Offered to Sell Iran Uranium for Civilian Nuclear Program, Tehran Refused

The United States proposed supplying Iran with uranium for a civilian nuclear program during earlier negotiations aimed at ending the war between the two countries, but Tehran turned the offer down, a senior US official revealed on Sunday.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz disclosed the previously unreported offer during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," describing it as part of Washington's broader effort to address concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions through diplomacy rather than military force alone.

"Our negotiators even offered to sell them uranium," Waltz said, framing the proposal as a potential pathway to a peaceful resolution. He explained that the arrangement would have mirrored the nuclear cooperation agreement the United States maintains with the United Arab Emirates, which he described as having a peaceful program that abides by international law and inspection regimes.

The ambassador indicated that President Donald Trump's administration was willing to permit Iran to retain a civilian nuclear capability, provided Tehran committed to fulfilling its obligations under international law and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran is a signatory to the NPT, which obligates member states to refrain from producing nuclear weapons and to submit to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards governing their uranium supplies.

According to Waltz, there were multiple approaches the administration was prepared to explore to prevent Iran from obtaining highly enriched uranium or developing the capacity to reconstitute such material. These options included having Tehran surrender any highly enriched uranium it currently possesses. The proposal to sell uranium to Iran would presumably have addressed one of the central sticking points in negotiations: how to guarantee a future supply of nuclear material for civilian purposes without enabling weapons development.

The UAE model that Washington reportedly sought to replicate involves a 2009 agreement under which the Gulf state committed not to produce enriched uranium domestically and not to reprocess spent fuel on its own. The UAE operates a nuclear power plant for electricity generation while adhering to those restrictions, an arrangement US officials have frequently cited as a template for regional nuclear cooperation.

The Trump administration has also pursued a civilian nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, which the president said was reached this year. However, the details of that arrangement have not been made public, and Trump has indicated the deal depends on Riyadh joining the Abraham Accords, the controversial normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab states. Other countries in the region, including Egypt and Turkiye, also operate civilian nuclear programs.

The nuclear landscape in the Middle East remains deeply uneven. Pakistan openly maintains a nuclear arsenal, and experts have long assessed that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, though neither country has signed the NPT. The disparity has fueled longstanding tensions and suspicions across the region.

A persistent obstacle in US-Iran negotiations has been the question of what to do with the uranium Tehran already holds and how to ensure any future supply cannot be diverted toward weapons production. Iran has consistently maintained that it has no intention of building a nuclear bomb, insisting that all uranium it enriches serves civilian purposes, including electricity generation, medical treatments, and scientific research.

According to estimates, Iran possesses more than 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity. Uranium enriched to roughly 90 percent is considered suitable for use in a nuclear weapon. The enrichment process is technically complex, requiring the isolation of the most radioactive isotope from a quantity of uranium.

Under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment to 3.67 percent under strict international monitoring in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. Trump withdrew the United States from that agreement in 2018, arguing it was excessively favorable to Tehran.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said on September 10 that it remained concerned about Iran's "continued noncompliance" with the NPT. The agency has been unable to access key Iranian nuclear facilities since June 2025, when Israel and the United States launched attacks on sites in Iran during a 12-day war.

Iranian officials have pushed back against the IAEA's findings, asserting they were issued "under political pressure from the US and its allies." Tehran maintains it has not ceased honoring its treaty obligations but argues it cannot permit inspections until its facilities are secured against further US and Israeli attacks.

Trump has at various points threatened to destroy Iran's enriched uranium stockpile or seize it by force. In April, the president claimed he had persuaded Iran to hand over its enriched uranium, which he referred to as "nuclear dust." Iranian officials swiftly rejected those assertions, stating that enriched uranium would not be transferred out of the country under any circumstances.

The diplomatic backdrop remains fraught. On Saturday, Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days, dismissing it as an act of desperation. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said Iran was seeking a deal to open the vital maritime corridor immediately "because they are losing so badly."

Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, appeared on "Meet the Press" on Sunday and reiterated Tehran's position that only diplomacy can resolve the conflict between the two nations. His remarks underscored the gap between the two sides even as Washington publicly discloses past offers that it says Iran refused.

The revelation of the uranium sales proposal adds a new dimension to the public record of US-Iran negotiations, illustrating the scope of incentives Washington was willing to place on the table. It also highlights the fundamental disagreement that persists: while the US has sought arrangements to prevent Iran from ever acquiring weapons-grade material, Tehran has resisted surrendering control over its nuclear stockpile or accepting constraints it views as capitulation.