Netanyahu says war with Iran not over, cites uranium stockpile risks

Benjamin Netanyahu is signaling that the campaign against Iran will not be treated as finished until highly enriched uranium is taken out of the country, a demand that turns a battlefield claim into a high-stakes test of nuclear verification and regional security.

In a preview clip for CBS News’ 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, May 10, 2026, Netanyahu said the war with Iran was “not over” because there was still “nuclear material - enriched uranium” that had to be removed from Iran. He added that enrichment sites still needed to be dismantled, along with Iran-backed proxies and ballistic missile capabilities. “You go in, and you take it out,” Netanyahu said, describing the task as “terrifically important.”

The language matters because it leaves open the question of what, exactly, would count as a genuine end state. Reuters reported that Netanyahu said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium must be “taken out” before the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran can be considered over. The Times of Israel noted that he did not initially specify whether he meant Iran’s full enriched-uranium supply or only the stockpile of highly enriched near-weapons-grade uranium.

That distinction is critical. The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a May 17, 2025 report that Iran had amassed 408.6 kilograms, or 900.8 pounds, of uranium enriched up to 60 percent, a level that shortens the path to weapons-grade material if further enriched. Reuters has reported that much of Iran’s highly enriched uranium was stored at an underground tunnel complex at Isfahan, which makes any removal or accounting effort more difficult and, in practice, would require outside verification.

Netanyahu’s comments also land amid fragile diplomacy between Washington and Tehran. Reuters reported that Iran had not agreed to U.S. demands over its nuclear program and stockpile, while President Donald Trump has said the United States would get enriched uranium from Iran and dismissed Tehran’s objections. With enrichment sites, stockpiles, proxies and missiles all folded into Netanyahu’s definition of the threat, the war’s endpoint now looks less like a ceasefire than a narrowly supervised nuclear rollback.

That leaves the central policy question unresolved: who can certify that Iran’s uranium has been removed, where it went, and whether the infrastructure to rebuild a program has truly been dismantled. Until that is answered, Netanyahu’s message suggests, the war remains unfinished.