US considers idea of special operation to seize Iran’s uranium
The Straits Times
Last year's strikes complicated the task of tracking the uranium, but that’s now become a live issue again for military planners. Read more at straitstimes.com.
NEW YORK – US President Donald Trump is weighing the option of deploying special forces on the ground to seize Iran’s near-bomb-grade uranium, as officials grow increasingly concerned the stockpile may have been moved, according to three diplomatic officials briefed on the matter.
The US and Israel struck key nuclear facilities during last June’s 12-day war. Uncertainty over Iran’s highly enriched uranium has intensified because it’s almost nine months since United Nations atomic inspectors last verified its location, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss restricted deliberations.
“They haven’t been able to get to it and at some point, maybe we will,” Mr Trump said late on March 7 during a briefing aboard Air Force One. “We haven’t gone after it, but it’s something we can do later on. We wouldn’t do it now.”
One of the stated aims of the attacks on Iran has been to rid the Islamic Republic of any capability to produce nuclear weapons. But the strikes on atomic facilities in 2025 complicated the task of tracking the uranium. That’s now become a live issue again for military planners, and it’s unclear whether any special operation would be conducted by US or Israeli forces.
Publicly, US officials have projected confidence that they know where the uranium is stored. Privately, there is said to be less certainty. In the weeks before the latest US and Israeli strikes, monitors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency observed sustained activity outside tunnels built into a hillside near Isfahan, where the material was last documented before the fighting began.
That activity increases the likelihood that at least some of the 441kg of highly enriched uranium stored at the complex was moved, said a diplomat in the Austrian capital familiar with the agency’s assessments.
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