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Report: Trump Wants to Go After Iran's Uranium

Plan to seize a half-ton of enriched uranium seen as high-risk escalation, reports WSJ
Posted Mar 30, 2026 8:37 AM CDT
Trump Considers Risky US Mission to Seize Iran's Uranium
A worker rides a bike in front of the reactor building of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, just outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran, on Oct. 26, 2010.   (AP Photo/Majid Asgaripour, File)

President Trump is actively considering a ground operation inside Iran to haul out nearly half a ton of enriched uranium, US officials say—a mission military experts describe as exposed and highly risky. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the plan under discussion would send American forces into at least two nuclear sites, possibly for up to a week, to locate and remove uranium stored in dozens of specialized canisters. Trump hasn't given the green light, according to officials, but views the idea as a way to ensure Iran can't move toward a nuclear weapon in the future. "They're going to give us the nuclear dust," he said of Iran's uranium Sunday night.

Trump has pushed advisers to make surrender of the uranium a condition for ending the war and has told allies that Iran "can't keep the material." Pakistan, Turkey, and Egypt are serving as go-betweens, but Washington and Tehran still aren't talking directly. The Pentagon is positioning forces and planning for contingencies, including a possible 10,000-troop boost in the region (current numbers have topped 50,000), while Trump publicly insists he doesn't want a drawn-out conflict. Military planners warn the extraction would likely invite Iranian retaliation and could blow past the administration's stated 4- to 6-week war timeline. "This would not only be one of the riskiest special operations missions in American history, but very possibly the largest," says CBS News national security analyst Aaron MacLean. Much more in the Journal piece.

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