President Donald Trump is weighing a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium from Iran, while also signaling that negotiations could still produce a deal. The point is simple and nonnegotiable: Iran cannot be allowed to keep the material that can anchor a nuclear weapons capability.
And Trump is not speaking softly about the stakes. Asked about Iran’s posture, he warned aboard Air Force One that “they’re not going to have a country” and added, “They’re going to give us the nuclear dust.”
No final decision has been made. But the administration is keeping every option on the table, including a direct seizure operation if Tehran refuses to surrender what it has stockpiled, Breitbart News reported.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Trump has privately signaled that preventing Iran from retaining its highly enriched uranium remains a central objective. He has encouraged advisers to press Iran to hand over the material as part of any settlement, while also weighing a military operation to extract it physically.
Trump also left open a diplomatic off-ramp, describing the United States as “doing extremely well” in negotiations with Iran and indicating a deal could soon be reached. But he did not pretend certainty exists in dealings with Tehran, saying, “You never know with Iran.”
That is the posture voters expect in a serious world: negotiate from strength, prepare for the alternative, and keep the goal fixed.
The material in question is not a slogan. Iran was believed to possess more than 400 kilograms, roughly 880 pounds, of uranium enriched to 60 percent before strikes last June, along with nearly 200 kilograms of 20 percent fissile material. That stockpile was described as being stored in dozens of specialized cylinders resembling scuba tanks.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has said he believes most of the uranium is located at two of the three sites struck by the United States and Israel last June, an underground tunnel complex at Isfahan and a cache at Natanz.
That detail matters because it turns the debate from abstractions into logistics. If the uranium is there, and if the regime will not hand it over, then “trust the process” is not a plan. Control of the material is the plan.
Breitbart News reported Saturday that the Pentagon has been preparing for potential weeks-long ground operations inside Iran, including Special Operations raids and limited infantry missions. Additional Marines and elements of the 82nd Airborne Division are moving into the region as part of a contingency posture.
Breitbart News also reported Friday that Marines aboard the USS Tripoli and paratroopers in Europe have been conducting chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense drills as they head toward the region.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt distilled what competent leadership looks like when plans are being built, and leaks start flying: "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."
That is how a commander-in-chief stays in control of events instead of letting events control him.
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said Iranian negotiators made clear during talks that Tehran would not relinquish its enrichment program. Witkoff also said the Iranians “boasted about their enriched uranium stockpile and its potential weapons capability,” insisting it would not give up diplomatically what the United States could not take militarily.
This is the regime’s tell. When a hostile government brags about what it has and dares you to prove you can stop it, that is not “misunderstanding.” It is leverage and intimidation.
The American answer cannot be a therapy session. It has to be the removal of the leverage.
A targeted extraction mission is not a movie scene. Retired Gen. Joseph Votel told the Wall Street Journal, “This is not a quick in and out kind of deal.” Other estimates in the source material suggest experts believe the extraction process could take days or even a week, against a publicly outlined four-to-six-week window for operations.
Votel described the standard that actually ends the threat, not just manages headlines:
"Ultimately, the regime leadership has to be compelled or convinced to give up this pursuit and they need to allow a cognizant authority to come in and take control of the HEU and verify that the program is shut down."
He noted this “could be done by the U.S. military,” but added it would “probably be better done through the IAEA, with our support and perhaps that of some others.”
Either way, the core demand is the same: custody, verification, shutdown. Not promises. Not posturing. Not another round of regime theatrics.
Trump said the United States is “weeks ahead of schedule” in the conflict, described Iran as “decimated,” and said Washington is now dealing with “a new group of people” in Tehran.
The source material also states the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the opening strikes of the operation, with Mojtaba Khamenei described as having been “controversially elevated” after his father’s death. Trump said Khamenei’s son “may be alive,” but is “very seriously wounded.”
Israeli media also reported Sunday that Tehran’s “nuclear fatwa” has not been reaffirmed by the successor leadership.
In other words, the old guard is gone or shattered, the new guard is unclear, and the one thing that cannot be left to confusion is where the highly enriched uranium ends up.
Trump has reportedly argued privately that a targeted operation could remove the uranium without dramatically extending the conflict. The Pentagon is preparing options. The diplomatic channel is open, but Iran’s negotiators are bragging, not backing down.
This is what deterrence looks like in the real world: a deadline you can enforce and a capability you are willing to use.
Iran can surrender the material, or it can watch Americans come collect it.