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Trump vows U.S. will retrieve uranium from Iran

AL-MONITOR
May 21, 2026
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 21, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 21, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque — Kevin Lamarque

WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump vowed on Thursday that the United States will eventually recover Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium despite comments from Iran that it will not hand over the material.

"We will get it. We don't need it, we don't want it. We'll probably destroy it after we get it, but we're not going to let them have it," Trump told reporters at the White House.

Iran is believed to possess about 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium, which Trump says was buried by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes nearly a year ago.

Retrieving the uranium is part of Trump's central objective of his war on Iran that Tehran will not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.

Iran's Supreme Leader has issued a directive that the country's near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources told Reuters.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Steve Holland; editing by Michelle Nichols)