Trump says US and Iran to remove buried nuclear material as Tehran downplays progress

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump announced that the US and Iran plan to team up to clear out leftover nuclear materials from Iranian sites. He called this a big move to stop Tehran from ever getting nuclear weapons.

As talks go on, Trump said Iran promised not to go after nuclear weapons and hinted that a bigger deal might be coming soon. But Iranian officials pushed back, saying there’s still no real breakthrough. They pointed out that the two sides remain pretty far apart on what happens next with Iran’s nuclear plans.

Trump says Iran agreed to abandon nuclear weapons

Trump said the central goal of the negotiations remains ensuring that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon.

Trump said Wednesday that talks with Iran are going "very well" and "as of this moment," Tehran has agreed to allow US personnel, in coordination with Iranian authorities, to enter Iran and recover buried nuclear material once the war ends.

"It's very, very hard to get it ... but nevertheless, I want to get at it," Trump told reporters at the White House.

He stated that Tehran has agreed to that in principle and indicated that discussions are now focused on implementing the details of a final arrangement.

The president also said the United States and Iran would cooperate in recovering what he has previously called "nuclear dust" or buried nuclear material located beneath damaged nuclear facilities.

According to Trump, the material remains under rubble following military operations that targeted key parts of Iran's nuclear infrastructure.

Despite recent strikes in the region, he said that the US-Iran ceasefire taking effect in early April remains in place, suggesting that it is possible an interim deal could be reached "over the weekend" as the ongoing talks are advancing.

"The negotiation itself has gone very well - actually, very well - even if it happens, and it might not happen, but if it happens, it could happen like over the weekend," Trump said.

Trump has repeatedly argued that any lasting agreement must include safeguards preventing Iran from enriching uranium for weapons purposes. He has also maintained that the remaining nuclear material cannot be allowed to remain accessible for future weapons development.

Tehran says talks remain unresolved despite Trump's optimism

While Trump portrayed negotiations as moving in a positive direction, Iranian officials reportedly pushed back against suggestions that a final breakthrough has been achieved.

Tehran has continued to insist that key issues remain unresolved and that discussions are still ongoing.

However, Iranian officials reportedly pushed back on Trump's characterization of the talks, saying they did not see a breakthrough and indicating that negotiations remained difficult.

In separate comments, Araghchi also said that regional issues remain linked to the broader negotiations, arguing that a lasting end to the conflict requires addressing the situation in Lebanon as well.

The differing public statements highlighted the gap between Washington's optimistic messaging and Tehran's more cautious assessment of the discussions.

Meanwhile, Trump claimed that Iranian officials have "changed their mind a couple of times, but as it stands now, we will go in sometime in the not-too-distant future."

Iran's naval forces have targeted the "command center" on a US destroyer in the Gulf of Oman in response to US "violations of the regulations" of the Strait of Hormuz and its "hostile" actions against Iranian vessels, state-run IRIB TV reported Wednesday.

Minutes later, the US Central Command denied the claim on X.