Trump warns US will not allow Iran access to enriched uranium

US President Donald Trump warned that America will target any Iranian who attempts to access the country's highly enriched uranium, asserting that the nuclear material is under constant US military surveillance.

In an interview with the syndicated program Full Measure airing May 10, Trump appeared to downplay the significance of the uranium, believed to lie amid rubble from surviving nuclear facilities in Iran. “We’ll get it sometime, whenever we want. We’ve been watching it,” Trump said.

“I did something called the Space Force, and they are watching. If anyone walks in, they can give you their name, address, card number… If anyone goes near that place, we’ll know, and we’ll blow them up,” the White House chief stressed.

Iran’s highly enriched uranium is a key sticking point between Washington and Tehran in ceasefire talks aimed at ending the 10-week US-Israeli war on Iran. The US wants Iran to ship the uranium out of the country and completely dismantle its nuclear program, but Tehran insists it will not abandon its right to a domestic enrichment program.

Multiple international media reports say the uranium remains beneath the nuclear sites the US bombed in June 2025, but Tehran has not confirmed the material’s location.

Last month, Trump claimed Iran had agreed to let Washington retrieve the uranium and bring it to the US – a claim Tehran swiftly denied. Trump told Reuters on April 17 that the US would work with Iran “at a nice, comfortable pace, and go down and start digging with big machinery” to recover the uranium stockpile at the sites. “We will bring it back to the United States,” he added.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei rejected Trump’s assertion. “Enriched uranium is as sacred to us as the soil of Iran and will not be moved anywhere under any circumstances,” he said.

Iran is estimated to have more than 400kg of uranium enriched to 60% purity. Enriching uranium is a complex process to isolate and collect the most radioactive variant – the isotope – of the element for nuclear fuel production. When enriched to about 90% purity, uranium can be used to build nuclear weapons.

In 2015, Iran agreed to a multilateral deal under which it scaled back its nuclear program and capped enrichment at 3.67% under close international oversight in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Trump scrapped that deal – known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – and began re-imposing sanctions on Iran. In response, Tehran – which denies seeking nuclear weapons – began ramping up enrichment far beyond JCPOA limits.

Trump argues the ongoing conflict with Iran is aimed at preventing it from obtaining a nuclear bomb. Asked about rising oil prices driven by the war, Trump said: “We can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon because they’re crazy.” The average price of a gallon (3.8 litres) of gasoline in the US has risen above $4.50 due to supply issues linked to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, fueling inflation. Before the war, gas was under $3.

Despite a ceasefire in effect since last month, fighting erupted in the Persian Gulf this week as the US continues to enforce a blockade of Iran’s ports amid Tehran’s closure of Hormuz. Iranian state-affiliated news agencies reported on May 10 that Iran had sent a response to the latest US proposal to end the war to Pakistan, acting as mediator. But Trump said the war is not over, repeating his claim that Iran has been “defeated.” “They are defeated, but that doesn’t mean they are finished. We could go in another two weeks and hit every target. We have certain targets, and we have done about 70 percent, but we have other targets we could hit,” the US president said.