Trump rejects upfront Iran sanctions relief and says US would destroy uranium stockpile

US President Donald Trump has rejected the idea of unfreezing Iranian assets or lifting sanctions upfront as part of any deal with Tehran. In comments made during an interview, he said any sanctions relief would come only after an agreement was reached and Iran had "behave[d]". He also said the US would seize and destroy Iran's stockpile of more than 400 kg of highly enriched uranium.

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Trump said sanctions relief would follow, not precede, any agreement. "Comes after. Yeah.

If they behave, if they do a good job, we start talking," he said. On the uranium stockpile, he said: "We'll take it out and destroy it, whether it's on-site or whether we take it off-site." The remarks were made on Sunday and come amid a fragile ceasefire and heightened tensions involving Iran and Israel. The comments also touched on Lebanon and Hezbollah.

Trump said he would like to see Lebanon "experience a better life" and called for a more "surgical" attack against Hezbollah. The timing is significant because Iran's parliamentary national security commission spokesperson, Ebrahim Rezaei, has threatened a "decisive and painful response" to an Israeli attack on Beirut's southern suburbs. That places the remarks within a wider regional confrontation that has continued to draw in state and non-state actors.

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The issue of sanctions relief is central to any future nuclear understanding with Iran. Freezing or unfreezing assets, and the sequencing of sanctions relief, are often among the most sensitive parts of negotiations because they affect both leverage and trust. Trump's comments suggest Washington would keep economic pressure in place until after a deal, rather than using relief as an early incentive.

His statement on the uranium stockpile also underlines the continuing focus on Iran's nuclear material and the question of how any agreement would handle it. Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium has been a recurring concern in nuclear diplomacy because of its potential relevance to weapons capability. The figure cited by Trump, more than 400 kg, points to the scale of the material at issue.

His remarks indicate that the US position, at least as described here, would not rely on Iranian cooperation alone if Washington decided to act on the stockpile. That raises questions about enforcement, verification and the risk of further escalation if talks do not progress. What remains unclear is whether these comments reflect a formal negotiating position or a public hardening of rhetoric.

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