President Donald Trump said Thursday that Iran has agreed to hand over “nuclear dust” that was buried by last year’s U.S. airstrikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities, a claim that, if accurate, would be a significant step in U.S. efforts to reduce Tehran’s ability to produce a nuclear weapon.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Iranian side that it had made the concession in talks with Americans and their Pakistani interlocutors as a two-week ceasefire nears its expiration Tuesday. Previous U.S. claims about Iranian nuclear commitments have turned out to be inaccurate or have fallen through.
“Nuclear dust” has been Trump’s phrase to describe the highly enriched uranium that is believed to be buried deep underneath the ground following U.S. strikes in June on the Fordow and Natanz nuclear facilities. Its existence in Iran’s hands has been a key point of tension between the Trump administration and Tehran. The enriched uranium has been a security concern for the United States, because the material could be used in service of creating a nuclear weapon.
Before the ceasefire, Trump requested that the U.S. military devise a plan for a highly risky and complex raid to fly into Iran and recover the radioactive material without Iran’s agreement.
“Iran does not have a nuclear weapon, and they’ve agreed to that. Iran’s agreed to that, and they’ve agreed to it very powerfully. They’ve agreed to give us back the nuclear dust that’s way underground because of the attack we made with the B-2 bombers,” Trump told reporters Thursday as he walked to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House. “So we have a lot of agreement with Iran, and I think something’s going to happen, very positive, very important.”
Vice President JD Vance engaged in high-level talks with Iranian officials in Islamabad over the weekend but departed without having reached a deal.
Limiting Iran’s capacity to build a nuclear weapon has long been a top goal of Trump and his administration. In 2015, as part of a nuclear deal with President Barack Obama’s administration, Iran gave up most of its stock of highly enriched uranium. But it rebuilt its trove after Trump pulled the plug on that deal in his first term.
Officials who have negotiated with Iran over its nuclear program in the past have long been skeptical about the possibility of eliminating the nuclear threat by force, saying that a diplomatic path is far likelier to succeed. The military plans for a raid on the “nuclear dust” would require the airlift of hundreds or thousands of U.S. troops deep into Iran for a weeks-long recovery mission, potentially while under fire.
An Iranian agreement to give up the uranium would ease or eliminate the pressure to mount such an operation. Iran has previously rejected U.S. proposals to hand over its enriched stockpile, but it suggested in negotiations before the Feb. 28 start of the war that it could “dilute” the enriched uranium to a lower level.
Trump’s claim came the same day he said Israel and Lebanon had agreed to a ceasefire, another step in an overall effort to reduce tensions and violence sparked by joint U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.
The post Trump says Iran agrees to hand over ‘nuclear dust’ appeared first on Washington Post.
