Trump considers commando raid on Iran

 Donald Trump could send American commandos to raid one of Iran’s key nuclear sites.

Iran is scrambling to salvage highly enriched uranium through a narrow entrance to underground bunkers in Isfahan. It could be used to build nuclear bombs.

The US president said he was considering whether to send in special troops to secure the uranium in the bunkers, which were hit by American bombs in June.

The uranium was entombed beneath large quantities of rubble when the Americans and Israelis struck Iran’s nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow during the 12-day war last year.

The Iranians are believed to have at least 450kg of 60 per cent enriched uranium. It would only take weeks to convert it into 90 per cent weapons-grade material, which could be used to make as many as 11 nuclear bombs.

The US and Israel are now contemplating recovering the material – or, if that is too dangerous and complex, diluting it on site.

The operation is unlikely to be imminent – officials indicated that they would wait until Iran’s military capabilities were further depleted by relentless bombing.

Mr Trump, the US president, was asked on Saturday on board Air Force One whether he might send in ground forces. 

He said: “At some point, maybe we will. We haven’t gone after it. We wouldn’t do it now. Maybe we will do it later. If we ever did that, [the Iranians] would be so decimated that they wouldn’t be able to fight on the ground level.”

One of Mr Trump’s stated objectives of the war, which has now entered its second week, is to prevent Iran from ever having a nuclear weapon.

When Marco Rubio, his secretary of state, was asked at a congressional briefing earlier this week whether the nuclear material would be secured, he said “people are going to have to go and get it”, without further details.

An American official told the news website Axios that the Trump administration has discussed two options: removing the uranium from Iran entirely or bringing in nuclear experts to dilute it on site.

“The first question is, where is it? The second question is, how do we get to it and how do we get physical control?” the official said.

“And then, it would be a decision of the president and the department of war, CIA, as to whether we wanted to physically transport it or dilute it on premises.”