The US and Israel are considering sending troops to secure Iran’s enriched uranium [Getty]
The US and Israel have discussed sending special forces into Iran at a later stage of the war to secure the country’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, Axios reported citing four sources familiar with the discussions.
Preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon has been one of US President Donald Trump’s declared objectives during the conflict.
US officials view Iran’s roughly 450 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent as central to that concern.
Axios reported that any operation to seize the material would likely require US or Israeli troops to enter Iranian territory and navigate heavily fortified underground nuclear facilities.
It remains unclear whether such a mission would be conducted by the United States, Israel, or jointly by both countries.
According to sources cited by Axios, the operation would likely only be considered once Washington and Tel Aviv believe Iran’s military no longer poses a significant threat to the forces involved.
At a congressional briefing earlier this week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that securing Iran’s enriched uranium could eventually require physical intervention.
“People are going to have to go and get it,” Rubio said.
An Israeli defence official told Axios that Trump and his team are seriously considering sending special operations units into Iran to carry out specific missions.
A US official told the outlet the administration has discussed two potential options: removing the nuclear material entirely from Iran or bringing nuclear experts to the sites to dilute the uranium on location.
Such a mission would likely involve special operations forces working alongside scientists and technical experts, potentially including personnel from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Axios reported.
Sources familiar with the discussions said the possibility of special operations inside Iran had been included among a range of options presented to Trump before the war.
One official said that the decision on whether to transport the material out of Iran or neutralise it on site would ultimately be made by Trump in coordination with the Department of War and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Trump himself said on Saturday that deploying ground forces to Iran was possible, but only under specific conditions.
When asked whether US forces could be sent to secure nuclear materials, Trump did not rule out the possibility.
“At some point maybe we will. We haven’t gone after it. We wouldn’t do it now. Maybe we will do it later,” he said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios that Trump “wisely keeps all options available to him open, and does not rule things out.”
However, a recent report from the National Intelligence Council says that even a “large-scale” US war is unlikely to be able to topple Iran’s leadership and overcome its layered military and security forces.
US and Israeli officials also told Axios that earlier strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities had buried much of the country’s enriched uranium stockpile under rubble, preventing Iranian authorities from accessing it.
Those strikes reportedly destroyed nearly all of Iran’s centrifuges, and officials say there are no signs that enrichment activities have resumed.
According to US and Israeli officials, most of the uranium stockpile is believed to be located in underground tunnels at the Isfahan nuclear facility, with the remainder split between the Fordow and Natanz sites.
