Trump vows US will retrieve highly enriched uranium from Iran

President Donald Trump vowed on Thursday that the United States will eventually recover Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium despite comments from Iran that it will not hand over the material.

“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,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

Iran is believed to possess about 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium, which Trump says was buried by US and Israeli airstrikes nearly a year ago.

Retrieving the uranium is part of Trump’s central objective of his war on Iran that Tehran will not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has issued a directive that the country’s near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced hope Thursday that a visit by Pakistan’s army chief to Iran will advance diplomacy on ending the war, saying there has been progress.

“I believe the Pakistanis will be traveling to Tehran today. So hopefully that’ll advance this further,” Rubio said.