Kazakhstan willing to store Iran’s enriched uranium if deal reached, IAEA chief says

By Reuters 29 May 2026, 6:39 pm

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Centrifuges line a hall at the Uranium Enrichment Facility in Natanz, Iran, in a still image from a video aired by the Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting company on April 17, 2021, six days after the hall had been damaged in a mysterious attack. (IRIB via AP)

Kazakhstan has signaled it is willing to take Tehran’s stockpile of uranium enriched close to weapons-grade levels if the US reaches a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog tells the Financial Times.

The central Asian state expressed its openness to keeping the stockpile when Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi in Astana this week, Grossi tells the newspaper in an interview published today.

Kazakhstan hosts an internationally-controlled bank of low-enriched uranium to ensure fuel supplies for power stations in IAEA member states and prevent nuclear proliferation. The storage facility was opened in 2017 in collaboration with the IAEA.