President Donald Trump is weighing a highly risky next step in the Iran conflict, with reports that he is considering sending US forces onto Iranian soil to seize or remove a stockpile of highly enriched uranium, even as Pakistan-led diplomacy seeks to open a path to a ceasefire and wider de-escalation across the Middle East. The idea, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, would mark a sharp escalation from air strikes and pressure tactics to a direct ground mission centred on Iran’s nuclear material. At the centre of the discussion is a cache of uranium that international inspectors had earlier estimated at 440.9 kilograms enriched up to 60% purity, a level well below weapons grade but far above civilian norms and technically much closer to bomb fuel than low-enriched uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had accumulated that amount by the time of military attacks in mid-June 2025, and warned that the agency’s inability to verify the status of the material for more than eight months was a serious proliferation concern. Reuters separately reported that such a stockpile, if enriched further, would be enough for about 10 nuclear weapons by the agency’s yardstick.
That technical backdrop helps explain why Trump’s advisers are pressing Tehran to hand over enriched material as part of any deal to end the war. Reuters reported on March 26 that US special envoy Steve Witkoff described non-enrichment and the surrender of Iran’s stockpiled enriched uranium as clear American red lines. The Wall Street Journal’s account goes further, saying Trump has encouraged aides to demand the material as a condition for ending hostilities and has remained open to a military retrieval operation if diplomacy fails. So far, there has been no public confirmation from the White House that a ground mission has been approved, and Reuters reported that while the Pentagon has examined options that could include ground forces, Trump has not signed off on them.
The timing is especially delicate because a diplomatic track is also moving, however unevenly. Pakistan hosted talks with Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia over the weekend, with Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar saying possible ways to bring an early and permanent end to the war were discussed and that officials had been briefed on potential US-Iran talks in Islamabad. Reuters said proposals under discussion included steps tied to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies normally pass. AP also reported that Pakistan had offered to host meaningful talks between Washington and Tehran in the coming days, though it remained unclear whether both sides had formally agreed to attend.
That leaves Trump trying to balance coercion with negotiation. He told reporters the United States was dealing with Iran both directly and indirectly and suggested he believed a deal was possible. Yet the same day, Reuters reported, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf accused Washington of speaking about talks while preparing a ground invasion. The messaging gap is widening anxiety across the region because even a narrowly defined raid to secure uranium would carry huge military and political risks. A force inserted to retrieve radioactive material would need air cover, transport capacity, site security and time on the ground, all under threat from Iranian missile, drone and conventional retaliation.
Regional conditions have also become more combustible. Reuters said Israel launched more than 140 air strikes on central and western Iran over a 24-hour period, while attacks from Yemen added another front. AP reported that Iran had struck infrastructure in Gulf states and that oil prices had climbed sharply, with Brent around $115 a barrel in early trading on Monday. Against that backdrop, any US ground move would be judged not only by whether it removed fissile material, but by whether it tipped a containable war into a broader regional confrontation involving shipping lanes, Gulf energy assets and allied states already under strain.