The Donald Trump administration is considering deploying troops on the ground in Iran to secure the country’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU), news reports say.
“People are going to have to go and get it,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a Congressional briefing Tuesday about securing Tehran’s stockpile of uranium.
Other news publications such as Axios said Israeli and U.S. officials said Trump’s team was considering various options – including sending special operations units into Iran to either remove the material; or bring nuclear experts, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in to dilute the material at the sites.
Trump also told reporters on Air Force One on March 7 “at some point maybe we will” send ground troops, but “we haven’t gone after it… we wouldn’t do it now. Maybe we’d do it later.”
The IAEA, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, estimated Iran had around 441 kilograms, or 972 pounds, of HEU enriched to 60%. If that material was then enriched up to 90%, or weapons grade, it would be enough for 10-11 nuclear warheads. This estimate was as of June 2025, around the time of the Trump administration’s Operation Midnight Hammer strike on Iran’s three main nuclear facilities Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
Rafael Grossi, IAEA’s director general, said Monday he believed 200 kilograms, or 440 pounds, of HEU survived the June strikes and were in deep tunnels outside the city of Isfahan. Additionally, while Trump repeatedly said the June strikes “obliterated” Iran’s three main facilities, the IAEA said last June Iran could start enriching uranium again, albeit on a more limited scale.
“I have been very clear and consistent in my reports on Iran’s nuclear programme: while there has been no evidence of Iran building a nuclear bomb, its large stockpile of near-weapons grade enriched uranium and refusal to grant my inspectors full access are cause for serious concern,” Grossi said on X March 3. “For these reasons, my previous reports indicate that unless and until Iran assists the @IAEAorg in resolving the outstanding safeguards issues, the Agency will not be in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful.”