Vladimir Putin publicly restated Russia's standing offer to take custody of Iran's 440.9 kg stockpile of HEU (Highly Enriched Uranium, the 60 per cent material at the heart of the impasse) at the SPIEF (St Petersburg International Economic Forum) plenary on Saturday 6 June1. He added that Russia is not arming Iran, that Iran has requested no weapons, and that both the United States and Israel privately told Moscow that recent shelling near the Bushehr nuclear plant was accidental.
The custodian arrangement hands Iran a way to satisfy the US demand to remove the stockpile without surrendering it to Washington. Trump rejected precisely that arrangement at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday 27 May, when he barred both Russia and China from the role and told his negotiators not to rush.
The offer follows Araghchi confirming no progress on the nuclear file, and it sits unanswered. Mojtaba Khamenei's order to keep the HEU inside Iran still stands, and Tehran has sent no counter-proposal since hand-editing the disputed deal text. Russia gains from being the only mediator both Washington and Tehran will still take calls from, so the offer serves Moscow's interest while remaining a concrete, deliverable route out of the deadlock.
