Trump weighs special ground op to seize 1,000 lbs of Iranian uranium — WSJ report

The Wall Street Journal reported on March 30 that US President Donald Trump is weighing a special military ground operation to physically extract approximately 1,000 pounds of enriched uranium from Iran. The objective would be to remove Iranian nuclear material before it can be weaponised. US officials told the WSJ that Trump has not yet made a final decision on the operation, as he is weighing the risks to troops. The uranium seizure plan is a separate operation from the Kharg Island oil seizure that Trump publicly endorsed in his Financial Times interview the same day. Together, the two operations signal a potential shift from the current air-strikes-only campaign to ground operations with dual objectives: disrupting Iran's nuclear programme via direct material seizure, and collapsing Iran's oil revenues via Kharg Island. Iran's enriched uranium stockpile — estimated at over 1,000 kg of uranium enriched to various grades as of early 2026 — is distributed across multiple facilities including Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The exact facility targeted in the reported US plan was not disclosed by the WSJ.