Iranian Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani displays photos of children killed in bombings as he speaks during a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East, amid ongoing hostilities between Israel and Iran, at UN Headquarters in New York.

Iran could transfer its stocks of enriched uranium to another country in the event of an agreement with the United States on Tehran's nuclear programme, Iran's UN Ambassador Amir-Saeid Iravani said on Saturday, according to news site Al-Monitor.

A transfer of 20% and 60% enriched uranium would not be a red line for Tehran, Iravani said, adding that the material could alternatively remain in Iran under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supervision.

However, he stressed that Iran would not renounce its right to domestic uranium production, a condition the United States firmly rejects.

Iravani also ruled out any restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile programme, and reiterated that a new agreement would hinge, among other conditions, on the lifting of international sanctions.

His remarks come hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X late Friday that Iran is fundamentally willing to resume nuclear negotiations with the United States, though he urged US President Donald Trump to moderate his tone.

"If President Trump is genuine about wanting a deal, he should put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards Iran's Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, and stop hurting his millions of heartfelt followers," Araghchi said. "Good will begets good will, and respect begets respect."

Trump recently said that new talks with Iran would take place "next week," though he offered no further details. Several previous rounds of negotiations between Washington and Tehran have failed to yield an agreement.

Earlier this month, tensions escalated sharply when Israel, accusing Iran of fast-approaching a point of no return in its goal of obtaining atomic weapons, carried out strikes on nuclear sites, defence positions, cities and energy infrastructure during a 12-day war.

More than 20 high-ranking Iranian military officials were killed, some in their homes. The US also intervened with a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Trump later said the attacks had set back Iran’s nuclear programme by years, and when asked if he would strike again should uranium enrichment continue, he replied in the affirmative, insisting Iran must not acquire nuclear weapons.

In response to the attacks, the Iranian parliament passed a law this week suspending cooperation with the IAEA. However, Tehran has not formally notified the agency, and experts warn that negotiations cannot proceed without the IAEA’s technical oversight.

Iran maintains that its nuclear programme is intended solely for civilian purposes.

The IAEA believes Iran has managed to produce 400 kilograms of uranium with a purity level of 60%.

Experts say this could be used to produce several nuclear weapons if the material were further enriched to 90%. It is unclear what happened to the stockpile in the wake of the attacks by Israel and the US.

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IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi says while key Iranian facilities have been hit, some are 'still standing'

Iran may be able to restart its uranium enrichment in a "matter of months", according to Rafael Grossi, Director General of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency.

"The capacities they have are there. They can have,... in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium," Grossi said in an interview with CBS News on Saturday.

"But as I said, frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there."

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that sanctions on Iran could be lifted if they agree to move forward in a peaceful manner.

"We have the sanctions. But if they do what they have to, if they can be peaceful and if they show us that they won't do any more damage, I would revoke them, and it would make a big difference," Trump told Fox News.

Trump explained that he turned down Iran's uranium enrichment request during negotiations, stating, "I wouldn't have let that happen", and then justified the bombing of Iran's nuclear plant by saying "Iran cannot have the nuclear weapon, and they were weeks away from having it".

On 22 June, the US launched multiple joint attacks with Israel against three of Iran's nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Trump had said the facilities were "totally obliterated" and the attacks had set Iran's nuclear programme back "by decades".

Extent of damage caused by strikes unclear

On 25 June, a leaked preliminary Pentagon assessment also found that Iran's nuclear programme has possibly only been set back by a few months. Following the outing of the report, Trump threatened to force journalists to reveal who leaked the report, which contradicted his narrative on Iran's bombing.

Meanwhile, in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the strikes had not achieved anything significant. However, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated "excessive and serious" damage has been done.

IAEA's Grossi has enquired to inspect the damaged facilities. However Tehran has rejected the request and on Wednesday voted to suspend its relationship with the IAEA, accusing it of siding with Israel and the US as it did not condemn the attacks on Iran.

But Grossi stays hopeful that the IAEA will be able to rebuild its relationship with Tehran.

"I have to sit down with Iran and look into this, because at the end of the day, this whole thing, after the military strikes, we will have to have a long-lasting solution, which cannot be but a diplomatic one," he said on Saturday.

In 2015, Iran and world powers reached a nuclear deal that barred Tehran from enriching uranium above 3.67% purity — the limit set for civilian nuclear use — and banned it from conducting enrichment at its Fordo plant until 2030.

Iran, which has always insisted its nuclear programme is peaceful, is a signatory of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and is required to submit to IAEA inspections.

But in 2018, Trump retracted the US from the deal, saying it failed to do enough to block Iran’s route to a nuclear weapon, and reinstated American sanctions.

By contrast, Israel is not part of the NPT, and while Tel Aviv has never said whether it possesses nuclear arms or not, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the country is estimated to have at least 80 nuclear weapons.

Israel struck Iranian top military and nuclear targets on 13 June, claiming Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon.

Following a 12-day conflict, Iran and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire. However, Trump said he would "absolutely" consider bombing Iran again if intelligence found enough evidence that Iran's enrichment of uranium rose to worrying levels.