Trump vows U.S. will recover Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile
Trump said the U.S. will take Iran’s enriched uranium and likely destroy it, raising a test of whether any deal can force the stockpile out of Iran.
Donald Trump said the United States would eventually recover Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, a pledge that runs into Tehran’s order that the material stay inside the country and into the practical limits of any seizure operation. At the White House on Thursday, Trump said, “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.”
The gap between the rhetoric and the reality is wide. Physically recovering the material would require one of three paths: an Iranian handover, an internationally supervised transfer arrangement, or a military move that could seize material believed to be dispersed, hidden or buried after last year’s strikes. Iran’s supreme leader has reportedly issued a directive that the near-weapons-grade stockpile should not be sent abroad, hardening Tehran’s position against any deal built on removal from Iranian territory.
The nuclear arithmetic makes the stakes even clearer. The International Atomic Energy Agency said on May 31, 2025, that Iran had 408.6 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60 percent, a level the agency describes as near weapons-grade, and said Iran was the only non-nuclear-weapon state known to be enriching to that level. The agency also put Iran’s total enriched-uranium stockpile at 9,247.6 kilograms as of May 17, 2025. After the June 13 strikes by the United States and Israel, the agency said Natanz’s above-ground Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant, where Iran had been producing uranium enriched up to 60 percent U-235, was destroyed, but inspectors still needed to return to Iranian sites to account for the stockpiles. Later agency updates placed the 60 percent material at 440.9 kilograms as of June 13 and the total enriched stockpile at 9,874.9 kilograms.
That unresolved accounting problem is why Trump’s promise matters beyond the headline. If Washington insists on surrender and Tehran refuses, the talks could break down into renewed pressure or escalation. If a deal is still possible, it would likely hinge on intrusive monitoring, sequencing and some form of international custody that both sides can defend at home. Marco Rubio said there were “some good signs” in the talks, but he also said any agreement would become unfeasible if Iran imposed tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, linking the uranium dispute to a wider contest over regional leverage and maritime access.
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