Trump vows US will seize and destroy Iran's uranium cache

President Donald Trump said Thursday the United States will recover and likely destroy Iran's stockpile of roughly 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium, vowing that Tehran will not be permitted to retain the material.

The declaration marks a sharp escalation in U.S.-Iran tensions over Tehran's nuclear program. Iran's Supreme Leader has already issued a directive forbidding the material from being transferred out of the country, according to The Korea Times.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, Trump made clear that the United States intends to recover the highly enriched uranium and eliminate it. "We will get it. We don't need it, we don't want it. We'll probably destroy it after we get it, but we're not going to let them have it," Trump said, according to The Korea Times.

Trump framed the retrieval effort as central to his administration's stated goal of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. He claimed the uranium was buried following U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities carried out nearly a year ago, though he offered no specific details about how retrieval operations would be conducted.

Iran's Supreme Leader has issued a directive explicitly forbidding the stockpile's transfer abroad, Reuters reported, citing two senior Iranian officials, as noted by The Korea Times. The directive places Tehran and Washington on a direct collision course over the material.

The standoff underscores deep divisions between the two governments over the trajectory of Iran's nuclear program. While Trump characterized the uranium as something the United States does not want for its own use, he was unequivocal that American policy would not permit Iran to retain it.

No timeline or operational plan for the uranium retrieval has been made public. The exchange leaves open the question of how the United States would physically recover material Iran has been directed by its Supreme Leader not to surrender.