Is Trump considering deploying special forces to Iran?

In addition to uranium, U.S. administration officials told Axios that there have also been discussions about seizing Kharg Island, an oil terminal responsible for roughly 90 percent of Iran’s crude oil exports.

U.S. and Israeli officials are actively searching for highly enriched uranium and have contingency plans ready, which include deploying special forces if its location is confirmed, one source told Bloomberg.

The United States and Israel struck key Iranian nuclear facilities during a twelve-day war in June of last year.

Uncertainty regarding Iran’s highly enriched uranium has grown further, as it has been nearly nine months since United Nations inspectors last confirmed its location, officials who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the discussions said.

Over the past months, U.S. and Israeli officials have intensified efforts to locate the Iranian stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which, if further processed, could allegedly be used to produce roughly 11 nuclear warheads.

In the weeks preceding the latest U.S.-Israeli strikes, observers from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna noticed increased activity in front of tunnels built into a hill near Isfahan, where the material was last documented before the conflict began.

This activity increases the likelihood that at least part of the 441 kilograms of highly enriched uranium previously stored at that complex has been relocated, one source told Bloomberg.