Iran tells Pakistan's army chief no enriched uranium will leave the country and no talks until US meets its conditions

Update, 10:02pm GMT Tuesday: The Arabic-language newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources, that Qatar and Pakistan had put forward a proposal under which Iran would receive the interest on $6 billion of its funds frozen in Qatari banks in exchange for confidential access for International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to its nuclear sites, and that Munir conveyed it in Tehran, Iran International and Arab Times reported. Neither the US nor the Iranian government has confirmed the proposal, and no agreement has been announced. Separately, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement carried by state TV that a third oil tanker carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude had caught fire after striking a naval mine south of the Strait of Hormuz, Middle East Eye reported. The Guards did not name the vessels; the maritime news site gCaptain noted that earlier Iranian mine claims this month were described as unsubstantiated by the Joint Maritime Information Center, and that the latest claims had not been independently confirmed.

Iran will not allow any enriched nuclear material to leave the country, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, in Tehran on Tuesday 20 October, according to Iranian state media as reported by AFP and Arab News. “Not even a tiny bit of enriched nuclear material will leave Iran,” Rezaei said, adding that there would be no negotiations until the United States took steps to build trust, beginning with meeting Iran’s conditions.

Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told Munir that Iran had “nothing new to say” and that Washington must fulfil Tehran’s seven conditions, AFP reported. President Masoud Pezeshkian said “pressures, threats, and sanctions must first be removed” before any talks, the state agency IRNA reported, according to Arab News. IRNA said Munir received Iran’s response to a message from the US, without disclosing its content.

Separately, three senior Iranian officials and an Iranian insider told Reuters that Tehran has deliberately prolonged talks with Washington to try to weaken President Donald Trump politically before the 3 November US midterm elections. “The clerical establishment is determined not to give Trump a political victory,” one official said. Iran’s Foreign Ministry and the White House did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Background: The US and Israel began strikes on Iran in late February 2026. Pakistan helped broker a memorandum of understanding in June that later unravelled, Arab News reported.

See also: Qatar says US-Iran negotiation is “ongoing” and Hegseth discussed Iran with Netanyahu during unannounced visit to Israel.