While the United States (US) and Iran continue with back-and-forth attacks against each other despite the ongoing peace negotiations, President Donald Trump has said that Washington prepared a “high-risk” plan to send American troops to the Islamic Republic to retrieve its enriched uranium, but ultimately it was scrapped because it required major military deployment.
Trump, who made the remarks while speaking to reporters from the Oval Office of White House on Thursday, said the plan would have taken at least two weeks to get completed and involved large amount of military equipment to be transported to Iran. Trump said the plan was thoroughly examined by military officials to retrieve the “nuclear dust”.
American media outlets, including The Washington Post, also reported about such a plan in April. The plan involved special operatives and engineers, along with excavation equipment. The Americans believe Iran is hiding its enriched uranium in underground facilities, and the troops would had to secure an entire area and setup a temporary base before airlifting it.
Why the plan was ultimately scrapped?
According to Trump, the plan was extremely “risky” and would need to send the American troops to Iran for weeks. He said the uranium was stored in underground basements, which would have made the excavation extremely difficult for the US military. However, he maintained that the US has the capability to conduct an operation if needed.
“We could get it right now,” the two-time US president told reporters earlier this week. “I don’t think they could stop us if we wanted, but there’s no reason to. It’s entombed.”
Why Iran’s nuclear programme remains an issue of disagreement?
The US and Iran have held peace talks and kept the back-door channel open, but have been unable to end the over three-month war in the Middle East, mainly due to Iran’s nuclear programme. Iran maintains that its nuclear programme is only for civilian use and peaceful purposes.
However, the US claims that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Last month, Trump had even claimed that Iran could target Israel and Europe if it is allowed to develop nuclear weapons. “If we didn’t do that, they would’ve had a nuclear weapon. Israel, the Middle East, and Europe would have been blown to pieces,” he had said at an event in Florida back then.ย ย
According to World Nuclear Association (WNA), Iran has a major project developing uranium enrichment capability, which has been concealed for years. It said Iran had limited its enrichment-related activities after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with the US, but began enriching it again after Washington’s withdrawal.
Under Trump, the US has vowed to stop Iran’s nuclear programme, but the Middle East nation has remained firm on it. It now remains to be seen how this impacts the peace negotiations, and if at all both nations are able to arrive on a consensus over it.
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