DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Iran’s supreme leader has issued a directive that the country’s near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources have said, hardening Tehran’s stance on one of the main US demands at peace talks.

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s order could further frustrate US President Donald Trump and complicate talks on ending the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Israeli officials have told Reuters that Trump has assured Israel that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, needed to make an atomic weapon, will be sent out of Iran and that any peace deal must include a clause on this.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not consider the war over until enriched uranium is removed from Iran, Tehran ends its support for proxy terror groups, and its ballistic missile capabilities are eliminated.

“The Supreme Leader’s directive, and the consensus within the establishment, is that the stockpile of enriched uranium should not leave the country,” said one of the two Iranian sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Iran’s top officials, the sources said, believe that sending the material abroad would leave the country more vulnerable to future attacks by the United States and Israel. Khamenei officially has the last say on the most important state matters, but he is believed to be increasingly sidelined, staying out of sight after he reportedly suffered considerable injuries in a US-Israeli strike earlier this year.

The White House and Iran’s foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

A shaky ceasefire is in place in the war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, after which Iran fired at Gulf states hosting........

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