Trump is strategizing means to seize Iran’s nuclear stockpiles, sources say

Washington — The Trump administration has been strategizing methods and options to secure or extract Iran’s nuclear materials, according to multiple people briefed on the discussions, as a U.S.-Israel led military campaign against Tehran enters a more uncertain phase. 

The timing of any such an operation — if President Trump were to order it — remained unclear Friday night. One source said he has made no decision yet. 

But planning has centered on the possible deployment of forces from the secretive Joint Special Operations Command, the elite military unit often tasked with the most sensitive counter-proliferation missions, two of the sources told CBS News. 

Spokespeople for the White House and Pentagon didn’t immediately comment. 

Mr. Trump in a Truth Social post Friday evening said: “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East with respect to the Terrorist Regime of Iran.”

The private deliberations on the nuclear material come amid an evolving conflict that in its opening focused on degrading Iran’s conventional military capabilities — including air defenses, missile systems and key infrastructure tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

That initial wave of strikes carried out by U.S. and Israeli forces was intended to blunt Iran’s ability to retaliate across the region. However, despite the onslaught from the air, Iran has been able to counterstrike on Israel and U.S.-allied countries in the Gulf region, and has halted most oil shipments by threatening ships. 

Six U.S. service members were killed and dozens were injured in an Iranian drone attack on a base in Kuwait, and one U.S. service member died from an attack in Saudi Arabia. Six Americans were killed when a refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq last week.

More recently, the administration turned its attention to a more enduring objective laid out by Mr. Trump at the start of the war: ensuring that Iran is no longer capable of producing a nuclear weapon. 

As of last summer, Iran had amassed some 972 pounds of 60%-enriched uranium, which is a short step away from weapons-grade material, according to the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. Much of that uranium remains buried underneath nuclear sites that were bombed by a U.S. operation last summer.

U.S. officials have said the Trump administration has not ruled out trying to retrieve Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium as part of the current military campaign. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier this week that “it’s an option on the table for him.”

Any mission to seize the uranium would be arduous and potentially risky.

“We’re talking about cylinders containing gas of highly contaminated uranium hexafluoride at 60%, so it’s very difficult to handle,” Rafael Grossi, the IAEA’s director-general, told CBS News “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” this week. “I’m not saying it’s impossible. I know that there are incredible military capacities to do that, but it would be [a] very challenging operation for sure.”

The U.S. intelligence community assessed last spring that Iran was not trying to build a nuclear weapon, and Iran insists that its nuclear program is intended solely for peaceful purposes. But in recent years,  Iran has enriched uranium to 60%, beyond the levels necessary for most non-military uses. The IAEA has said Iran is the only non-nuclear weapons state to enrich uranium to that level.

Since the war’s outset, Mr. Trump has listed ensuring that Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon as one of the war’s goals.

Prior to the outbreak of the conflict, the U.S. and Iran held several rounds of indirect talks aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program. Those talks included discussions about blending Iran’s highly enriched uranium down to a lower level and converting it to fuel, according to Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, who helped mediate the negotiations.

Mr. Trump has pushed for Iran to stop enriching uranium altogether, including at lower levels, an idea the Iranian government has rejected.