Trump considers commando raid on Iran
President weighs up options as Tehran races to salvage enriched uranium from nuclear site
Donald Trump could send US commandos to raid one of Iran’s key nuclear sites.
Iran is scrambling to salvage highly enriched uranium, which could be used to build nuclear bombs, through a narrow entrance to underground bunkers in Isfahan.
Donald Trump, the US president, said he is considering whether to send in special troops to secure the uranium in the bunkers that were hit by US bombers last June.
The uranium was “entombed” beneath vast quantities of rubble after the Americans and Israelis struck Iran’s nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow during the 12-day war.
The Iranians are believed to have at least 450kg of 60 per cent enriched uranium. It would take just weeks to convert it into 90 per cent weapons-grade material, which could be used to make up to 11 nuclear bombs.
The US and Israel are now contemplating recovering the material – or, if that is too dangerous and complex, diluting it on site.
The operation is unlikely to be imminent – officials have indicated that they would wait until Iran’s military capabilities are further depleted by relentless American and Israeli bombing raids.
Asked whether he might send in ground forces, Donald Trump said: “At some point, maybe we will. We haven’t gone after it. We wouldn’t do it now. Maybe we will do it later.
“If we ever did that, [the Iranians] would be so decimated that they wouldn’t be able to fight on the ground level,” he said on board Air Force One on Saturday.
One of president Trump’s stated objectives of the war, which has now entered its second week, is to prevent Iran from ever having a nuclear weapon.
When Marco Rubio, his secretary of state, was asked at a congressional briefing earlier this week about whether the nuclear material would be secured, he said: “People are going to have to go and get it,” without offering further details.
An American official told the news website Axios that the Trump administration has discussed two options: either removing the uranium from Iran entirely or bringing in nuclear experts to dilute it on-site.
“The first question is, where is it? The second question is, how do we get to it and how do we get physical control?” the official said.
“And then, it would be a decision of the president and the department of war, CIA, as to whether we wanted to physically transport it or dilute it on premises.”
Another source said the operation, if it was carried out, would involve “small special ops raids – not a big force going in.”
Washington decided not to attempt to retrieve the uranium after the 12-day war in June last year. The president reportedly concluded that doing so would be too dangerous.
The Americans hit the underground facilities at Fordow and Natanz with the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, their most powerful conventional weapon, while they struck the facility in Isfahan with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy official, was asked this week how concerned US officials are about the nuclear stockpile in Iran. “Without getting into any specifics, obviously we’re always highly focused on that,” he said.
Conflict continues to rage across the Middle East. Israel struck several Iranian fuel sites late on Saturday night.
Iran’s ministry of oil released a statement confirming that multiple oil depots in Tehran and Alborz had been targeted.
Videos circulating on social media show a large fire burning near an oil storage facility in northwest Tehran.
The strikes appear to be the first aimed at Iran’s energy infrastructure since the war began last week, marking a significant turning point in the war and raising further questions about oil prices.
Meanwhile, Iran struck desalination plants across the Gulf for the first time in Bahrain. Such infrastructure is critical for drinking water supplies.
Saudi Arabia destroyed a drone that was heading for the diplomatic quarter in its capital, Riyadh, its defence ministry said.
Falling missile debris injured three people and damaged a university building in Bahrain on Sunday, the interior ministry said.
In Kuwait, a huge fire engulfed a government building in the early hours of Sunday, following more drone attacks on the Gulf country.
The Public Institution for Social Security said its main site was targeted by strikes.
Israel carried out a strike on a Beirut hotel, targeting key commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
At least four people were killed and 10 injured during the attack on the Ramada hotel in Lebanon’s capital. Images appear to show the bombed seafront hotel, with one room heavily damaged and its windows shattered.
The IDF said in a statement on X they had struck “key commanders in the Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were operating in Beirut”.
The Israeli air force struck a compound at Isfahan airport in Iran where F14 fighter jets were stationed.
Meanwhile, the clerical body that will choose Iran’s next supreme leader has more or less made a decision, it was reported.
But Israel’s military warned that it will “pursue” whoever is chosen to succeed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s supreme leader was killed on Feb 28 in air strikes carried out by Israel and the US on his compound in Tehran.
In a post on X, the IDF’s Farsi-language account said: “Iran’s Assembly of Experts, which has not convened for decades, will soon gather in the city of Qom.
“We want to tell you that the hand of the State of Israel will continue to pursue every successor and every person who seeks to appoint a successor.
“We warn all those who intend to participate in the successor selection meeting that we will not hesitate to target you either. This is a warning!”