US President Donald Trump is weighing a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran, according to US officials who spoke to The Wall Street Journal on Sunday. The complex and risky mission would likely put American forces inside the country for days or longer.
Trump has not yet made a decision on whether to give the order, the officials told the newspaper. They added that he is considering the danger to US troops. But the president remains generally open to the idea because it could help accomplish his central goal of preventing Iran from ever making a nuclear weapon.
The president has also encouraged his advisers to press Iran to agree to surrender the material as a condition for ending the war, according to a person familiar with Trump’s thinking. Trump has been clear in conversations with political allies that the Iranians cannot keep the material. He has discussed seizing it by force if Iran will not give it up at the negotiating table.
Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt have acted as intermediaries between the US and Iran. But Washington and Tehran have not yet engaged in direct negotiations to end the war.
“It’s the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the commander-in-chief maximum optionality. It does not mean the president has made a decision," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. The Pentagon did not comment and a spokesman for US Central Command declined to comment.
Before Israel and the US conducted a series of airstrikes on Iran in June last year, the country was believed to have more than 400 kilograms of 60 percent highly enriched uranium, and nearly 200 kilograms of 20 percent fissile material, which is easily converted into 90 percent weapons-grade uranium.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi has said he thinks the uranium is mainly at two of the three sites that the US and Israel attacked in June: an underground tunnel at the nuclear complex in Isfahan and a cache at Natanz.
The president and at least some of his allies have said privately it would be possible to seize the material in a targeted operation that would not significantly extend the timeline of the war and still enable the US to be done with the conflict by mid-April, according to the person familiar with the discussions who spoke to The Wall Street Journal.
Trump has told associates that he does not want a protracted war. Some of his top aides are eager for him to focus on other matters, including the coming midterm elections, where polls are showing Republicans could face significant losses.
As the military continues striking targets in Iran, Trump is receiving briefings about the challenges of the uranium operation, US officials said. The military is also preparing for other options should the president order them, including positioning quick-response Marine units and paratroopers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in the region that could seize strategic locations such as an island off Iran’s southern coast, according to a US official.
Trump last Saturday gave Iran an ultimatum of 48 hours to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes on its power plants.
He has since extended that ultimatum twice to allow for negotiations with Iran, most recently on Thursday, when he gave Iran ten additional days.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said on Friday that Washington expects Iran to respond to its 15-point proposal to end the war, adding he believes the sides will hold talks this week.