Source : Reuters
TEHRAN, November 11, 2026 – Iran will not allow its enriched nuclear material to leave the country and wants to use it for nuclear-powered ships and submarines, security chief Mohsen Rezaei said on Wednesday, in an interview with Lebanon-based Al Mayadeen television reported by Reuters, the Times of India and Middle East Eye.
Rezaei said Iran would not allow “even a single particle” of its enriched nuclear material to leave, the Times of India reported, and told Al Mayadeen that Tehran would not permit “a single speck” of enriched uranium to be sent abroad, according to Middle East Eye. “We need the enriched material to design ships and submarines that work on nuclear energy,” he said, adding that Tehran had informed Moscow that the material would remain in the country and “we will use it ourselves.”
The Iranian news agency ISNA, cited by ANI, said Rezaei also ruled out transferring the stockpile abroad and said it would be retained for domestic uses, including nuclear-powered vessels and small modular reactor power plants. Reuters reported his comments under the headline that Iran “will not allow enriched nuclear material to leave the country.”
The remarks came after US officials played down the need for further military action and after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Iran’s terms for a political settlement as “absurd,” arguing that the US naval blockade gave Washington the upper hand, Middle East Eye reported. Iran’s supreme leader has directed that the country’s near-weapons-grade uranium must not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources told Reuters in May.
The International Atomic Energy Agency estimated that Iran had 440.9 kilogrammes of uranium enriched to 60 per cent, a level far higher than required for civilian use, when Israel and the United States attacked Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025, the Times of India, citing that estimate, reported. Western countries have long accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the allegation. Washington has said Iran’s nuclear programme must be part of any talks aimed at ending the war.
Rezaei also said there were currently no negotiations between Tehran and Washington, and that Iran was waiting for a clear response to seven conditions it has set, a point he repeated in the same interview. In the same broadcast he warned that if US aircraft took off from bases, including in Europe, to bomb Iran, those bases would be struck – a threat reported separately by France 24 and others.
Rezaei has become one of the most prominent Iranian officials explaining Tehran’s terms in recent months. His interview was broadcast as mediators, including Qatar, have tried to keep a diplomatic track open even as both sides accuse the other of setting impossible conditions.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters last week that Tehran had sent a nuclear proposal to Washington through Qatar. Rezaei’s Wednesday comments amount to a public refusal to surrender the enriched stockpile as part of a settlement. Iran has not published a detailed plan for nuclear-powered submarines, and that stated use has not been independently verified beyond his remarks.
Source: Reuters, Middle East Eye, The Times of India and ANI; Al Mayadeen interview
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