Report: Trump weighs military operation to seize Iran's uranium stockpile

President Trump is weighing a high-risk military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of enriched uranium from Iran as part of efforts to prevent the Islamic regime from developing a nuclear weapon, according to The Wall Street Journal. 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. (Read More)