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Andrew Weber, a national security expert, said on Sunday that removing Iran’s highly enriched uranium could take thousands of US troops and experts to get the material out of the country.
Weber served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical & Biological Defense Programs under former President Barack Obama and participated in the removal of enriched uranium from Kazakhstan abandoned by the Soviet Union.
CBS News’ Cecilia Vega asked Weber during an interview on “60 Minutes” if the same type of activity could happen in Iran.
“In Iran, we couldn’t send a team to do this without a lot of risk,” he said. “You will need to set up a safe zone inland. It will probably take thousands of US troops to secure this facility while our experts dig up the HEU inside the deep tunnels in a place called Isfahan.”
THE NEXT MOVE IN IRAN: HOLD KHARG ISLAND, SECURE THE URANIUM OR THE CONTINUATION OF WORLD WAR
Andrew Weber, who served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical & Biological Defense Programs under former President Barack Obama, spoke to “60 Minutes” about what could be involved in removing the most enriched uranium from Iran. (Screenshot/”60 Minutes”)
Matthew Bunn, a nuclear policy analyst and former White House adviser, said the US military was training for something like this.
“It’s not like Iran hasn’t considered the possibility of us doing this. But US Special Forces have been training in deep underground facilities of one kind or another for a long, long, long time,” Bunn told CBS.
Vega also asked about President Donald Trump, after the US attacked Iran’s nuclear site in 2025, saying that Iran’s program has been completely dismantled.
“Yeah, that’s not true,” Bunn said. “You can’t say that a program that still has enough nuclear material for dozens of nuclear bombs is doomed. Unfortunately. There is no doubt that the combination of strikes in June of last year, along with the ongoing war, has set back Iran’s power significantly. But the power that remains is great. You cannot detonate their knowledge with bombs.”
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President Donald Trump said the US could take Iran’s enriched uranium. (Alex Brandon/Pool/AP)
Trump said the US could take Iran’s enriched uranium.
“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, and we will return the dust. We will get it. Either we will get it from them or we will take it,” Trump said at the White House in March.
The White House did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Satellite image taken on Jan. 30, 2026, we show a new roof over a previously demolished building at the Natanz nuclear site. (Planet Labs PBC/Reuters)
Peace talks with Iran were expected to begin in Pakistan on Tuesday, but recent reports from Iran’s state media have thrown the meetings into doubt. I a fragile two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran will expire on Wednesday, and there has been no talk of extending the deal.
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Trump has repeatedly said that his goal of fighting Iran was to ensure that the country does not develop a nuclear weapon.
