Senior officials from United States and Israel have recently discussed an unprecedented scenario: deploying special forces on Iranian soil to physically secure the stockpile of enriched uranium accumulated by Iran. This was reported Sunday morning by Axios, citing two U.S. administration officials and sources familiar with the details of the plan.
At the center of the proposed complex operation are about 450 kilograms of uranium enriched to a level of 60 percent. According to intelligence assessments, this is a critical quantity that could be rapidly enriched to the military-grade level of 90 percent-enough to produce no fewer than 11 nuclear bombs.
According to the report, powerful Israeli and American strikes last June destroyed most of the centrifuges at Iran’s nuclear facilities and caused structural collapses that sealed the entrances to underground tunnels. As a result, the uranium stockpile is now trapped under the rubble at the facilities in Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, Natanz Nuclear Facility, and particularly at the facility in Isfahan.
Officials say that in the early days of the current campaign, targeted strikes were carried out to permanently “seal" these facilities in order to prevent the Iranians from extracting the dangerous material and smuggling it out. Now, the possibility is being considered of sending special ground forces to seize the stockpile and ensure that it does not fall into hostile hands or serve to rebuild Iran’s nuclear capability in the future.
According to the report, such an operation would be among the most complex and dangerous ever carried out, as it would involve deploying fighters deep inside Iranian territory. The assessment is that such a move would only be undertaken if Israel and the United States conclude that the Iranian military has been weakened to the point where it no longer poses a significant threat to the commando forces.
Donald Trump has already declared that preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is a central objective of the war, and physically seizing the raw nuclear material is seen as the final and decisive step toward achieving that goal.