US President Donald Trump said Thursday that American forces could remove Iran’s enriched uranium even without Washington making a deal with the Islamic Republic, but that “there’s no reason to,” because, he said, the regime can’t access it anyway.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump revealed that he had considered sending US troops to retrieve the buried stockpile at the very start of the war, but chose not to do so because of the risks and potential complications.
“I didn’t feel like being like Jimmy Carter,” he said, alluding to the former president’s failed effort to rescue 52 US Embassy staff held hostage by Iran in 1980.
Trump again claimed that a deal with Iran would ensure the removal or disposal of the uranium, something Iran has denied accepting. “As it stands right now, we will go in, in the not too distant future [to deal with the underground stockpile by agreement],” he said.
“We could get it right now. I don’t think they could stop us if we wanted, but there’s no reason to. It’s entombed,” the president said.
“It’s very safe down there,” he added. “We have cameras; every angle of those three [underground nuclear] sites are being watched at all times. If anybody went there, we’ll see exactly what’s happening and we’ll blow it up a little bit further….”
“[It’s ] very hard to get that material, but I still nevertheless want it,” he said, but added: “I don’t want to do it if we’re in conflict. I don’t want to put men in that kind of danger.”
Trump detailed, for the first time, a plan he said he did not approve that would have sent American troops into Iran to collect what he commonly calls the “nuclear dust.”
“I didn’t want to be in a position where you had…,” he said, then paused before resuming: “It’s not like Venezuela — like, you go in, you’re there for a matter of minutes and you’re out. And everybody’s waving goodbye as you take off,” he elaborated.
“This is different. You have to be there for two weeks. You’d need massive equipment. You’d have to airlift the equipment.”
“There was a time at the very beginning when we thought about doing that, because they would have not been watching, but they would have found out,” he added.
Previously, Trump has insisted on the need to remove or destroy Iran’s stockpile of some 440 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium — a short step from weapons-grade.
Nuclear experts have also urged the US to require the removal of all uranium enriched by Iran to lower levels, to better block Iran’s path to a nuclear weapons arsenal.
Trump’s apparently shifting stance regarding the uranium stockpile followed his recent backing away from his previous demand for an end to all Iranian enrichment, saying on May 15 that he would accept a 20-year suspension of uranium enrichment.
Trump also said Thursday that he was not looking to meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, but said that he’d “be honored” to do so.
Trump said if Washington and Tehran reached a deal, it was possible that the two would meet and added, “If it happened… I’d be respectful.”
“In some circles, he has a very good reputation actually,” he said of Khamenei.
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