On potential upcoming US-Iran talks, the two sides can't agree on scope - with Washington wanting to go beyond just the nuclear sphere and into the question of Tehran putting limits on its ballistic missile arsenal. The Iranians have given a firm no on this, and so the talks look doomed to fail. But Russia is now offering - or at least reiterating - a potentially huge overture.

"Moscow is willing to take what remains of Iran’s enriched uranium," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said Wednesday.

"At the same time, it is important to note that the aforementioned stockpiles belong to Iran. Their presence in no way contradicts Tehran's obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons," Zakharova stressed in a  fresh press briefing, as quoted by Kommersant.

This explanation backs the longtime insistence by Iranian leadership that its nuclear development is only for peaceful domestic energy, and not for weapons.

"Tehran has full rights to the material, including deciding whether to remove it from Iranian territory and where to export it,"  Zakharova added.

This is not the first time Moscow has offered to mediate some kind of solution, but the current crisis takes on extra urgency, given President Trump has threatened to bomb Iran again.

"Russia once offered to export Iran's enriched uranium reserves to its territory. This initiative is still on the table," Zakharova said in reference to a prior plan to do the same.

But Washington might find this unsatisfactory, again as its demands are going well beyond nuclear arms into conventional ones, and Tehran is not going negotiate its way into being defenseless against Israeli attack.

In fresh Wednesday statements in response to a question, Trump upped the threat - while still remaining ambiguous in terms of articulating plans or intent...

"I would say he should be very worried," Trump told NBC News when what Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's feelings should be when faced with US military action.