Donald Trump has reportedly rejected an offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin to move Iran’s enriched uranium to Russia.
The proposal was made as part of a deal to end the U.S. and Israel’s war against Tehran, Axios report.
The offer was put forward during a phone call between the two leaders this week, but Trump is said to have declined it.
This rejection comes amid Mr Trump’s recent admission that Mr Putin could be assisting Iran in its military efforts against the U.S.
It appeared to contradict earlier assertions from his Middle East envoy. U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who had previously stated that following a conversation with Mr Trump and other Russian officials on Monday, Moscow had denied sharing intelligence with Iran.
“I think he might be helping them a little bit, yeah, I guess, and he probably thinks we’re helping Ukraine, right?” Trump said, speaking to Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade in a Friday interview. “Yeah, we’re helping them also.”
“So he [Putin] says that, and China would say the same thing, you know,” Trump said. “It’s like, hey, they do it and we do it, in all fairness. They do it and we do it.”
Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, held a separate phone call with Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy advisor Monday morning , he said.
According to Witkoff, Ushakov had also said that Russia is not sharing intelligence with Iran.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier this week that Trump and Witkoff had told the Russians that if intelligence sharing was taking place, “It’s not something they would be happy with, and they hope that it is not taking place.”
Reports suggest that Russia could earn more than $10 billion in additional oil and gas revenues to help fuel its war on Ukraine, thanks to Trump’s lifting of restrictions on countries buying Russian crude stranded at sea.
The president decided on the closure of the key shipping route, the Strait of Hormuz, which sent prices soaring to over $120.
