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Seizing Iran's uranium could take 'largest special forces operation in history' – WSJ

On 16 March 2026, Times of Israel staff published Seizing Iran's uranium could take 'largest special forces operation in history' – WSJ. The Times of Israel is a major Israeli news site in English. An American family should care because the article says that taking Iran's enriched uranium, uranium processed so it can fuel a reactor or, at higher levels, a bomb, could require more than 1,000 military personnel on the ground at one Iranian site, under missile and drone fire. That is a picture of American soldiers in Iran. On the same page, President Donald Trump said there was no such plan at the time.

Background for new readers: On 28 February 2026 the United States and Israel began a joint air war on Iran. The Pentagon calls its part Operation Epic Fury; Israel calls its part Operation Roaring Lion. It came eight months after a shorter war in June 2025, when US bombers hit Iran's nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The question running through this section is whether the air war turns into American soldiers fighting on Iranian soil. This article is filed under Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid; the full article index lists every article on this shelf.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. The scale of the raid is an expert estimate reported by The Wall Street Journal and carried by The Times of Israel, with named former officials including former NATO commander James Stavridis. Trump's answer about a plan is quoted directly.

What the article says​

The article says American and Israeli jets bombed three Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025. At that time, it says, Iran was believed to hold about 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent. Enrichment is how much the useful isotope has been concentrated. The article calls 60 percent a short step from weapons-grade, which it puts at 90 percent, and says that amount was estimated to be enough for ten nuclear bombs. It says almost 200 kilograms more, enriched to 20 percent, were also believed to be in Iran's possession. Iran's public position, as the article states it, is that the program is civilian. The article also says that before the June war Iran had enriched far past peaceful needs and had blocked international inspectors.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear inspector, said about half of the 60 percent material was stored in a tunnel complex at Isfahan, a nuclear site in central Iran. The article mentions an earlier report that the United States believed there was a "very narrow access point" through which the material might be reached.

Seizing it during the war, the article says, would be a major operation. The Wall Street Journal, citing US and Israeli security experts, called it "the largest special forces operation in history." Special forces are small units trained for raids, not a mass army of infantry. Former NATO commander James Stavridis told the Journal, in wording the article quotes separately, that it could be "the largest special operations forces in history." Those two phrases are close, but they are not the same sentence. The article uses both.

The Journal, citing former military officials, reported that upward of 1,000 military personnel would have to be on site. Combat troops would hold a perimeter. Engineers would dig through rubble and check for mines and booby traps. A local airfield would be needed to bring equipment in and take the material out. If none existed, a makeshift airfield would have to be built. Forces would likely come under drone and missile fire, so ground forces and aircraft would have to hold that fire off. The article also notes another path: dilute or destroy the material instead of removing it. That, it says, would risk contaminating the area.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told CBS, the article reports: "Our nuclear facilities were attacked, and everything is under the rubble." The article says he said the government had no plan to recover the material, and was not willing to negotiate about the stockpile while under fire.

Trump, asked the week before on Fox News radio whether there was a plan to seize the stockpile, said: "No, not at all." He added: "We're not focused on that. But at some point we might be." He said the focus then was Iran's missiles and drones. The article says the wider war had begun on 28 February 2026, with US and Israeli strikes and Iranian attacks across the Middle East.

A military operation to seize Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium would require "the largest special forces operation in history," The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing US and Israeli security experts.

The Times of Israel, 16 March 2026, summarizing The Wall Street Journal. The Journal's own quoted expert, James Stavridis, used a slightly different phrase, "the largest special operations forces in history."

What other reporting adds​

Later reporting on the same mission. Two weeks after this article, a digest of US press reporting quoted The Wall Street Journal: "US President Trump is weighing a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran, according to U.S. officials cited by the WSJ, a complex and risky mission that would likely put American forces inside the country for days or longer." (@ZackEiseman on X, summarizing the WSJ, 30 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t49__v587.md). In May 2026 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS's 60 Minutes the uranium "has to be taken out of Iran," and when asked how, said: "You go in, and you take it out." He added that "what President Trump has said to me, 'I want to go in there.'" (CBS News transcript, 10 May 2026; research capture: twitter/t13__v145.md). In July, the New York Post reported, citing "a source familiar with military planning," that the operation "would involve thousands of ground troops storming Iran's nuclear facilities — navigating boobytraps, utilizing construction crews, and maintaining a large defensive blocking force surrounding the sites." Joseph Rodgers of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told the Post: "You need to create a secure perimeter around all of the sites that you're trying to go in and grab the material from." (New York Post story as pasted by @OwenGregorian on X, 25 July 2026; the Post's own URL was not captured; research capture: twitter/t52__v613.md).

An expert's view at the time. On a Council on Foreign Relations podcast two days after this article, historian Max Boot described the possible options as "very limited numbers" of special operations troops or a small number of Marines, including special operations to secure "nearly 1000 pounds of highly enriched uranium," and said neither had yet been done (CFR, The President's Inbox, 18 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t52__v617.md).

What it shows​

This is the uranium mission in its own numbers: upward of 1,000 military personnel at one Iranian site, combat troops holding a perimeter, engineers digging through rubble, an airfield built if none exists, all under drone and missile fire. The week before, Trump said of a plan to seize the stockpile: "No, not at all," and "But at some point we might be."

What followed moved toward it. On 30 March the WSJ reported Trump weighing an extraction that "would likely put American forces inside the country for days or longer." In May Netanyahu said "You go in, and you take it out." In July the New York Post reported a raid of "thousands of ground troops." The uranium goal cannot be met from the air, and the soldiers named for it are American. See Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid.

Check it yourself​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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