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Report: US mulls sending special forces into Iran to seize or destroy nuclear material

Ynetnews published Report: US mulls sending special forces into Iran to seize or destroy nuclear material on July 25, 2026. The page lists the author as ynet Global. It retells a New York Post account that U.S. planners were looking at a raid to seize or destroy Iran's enriched uranium, and that the raid could take thousands of ground troops. An American family should read this as the size of the mission being planned: thousands of American ground troops.

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 page relays The New York Post, which cited experts by name, Joseph Rodgers of CSIS and former National Security Council official Richard Goldberg, and one unnamed person familiar with the planning.

What the article says​

Ynetnews says The New York Post reported that military planners were considering a special-operations mission against fortified nuclear sites. According to this page, the Post cited experts and a person familiar with the planning. The account says thousands of troops might have to secure the sites, clear booby traps, reopen damaged entrances, and hold perimeters and escape routes. A smaller special-operations team would then retrieve the nuclear material.

Joseph Rodgers, deputy director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington research group, told the Post that if negotiations stay stuck, a military operation is in his view the most likely way to remove the stockpile Iran already has. He described a mission of that kind as potentially the most sophisticated in military history, because forces would have to work in hostile territory and hold several sensitive sites at once.

The page says The High Side, a publication cited by the Post, named Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and specialists from the Army's 21st Ordnance Company as units that could take part. Those ordnance soldiers handle explosives and hazardous material. The page says they would move enriched uranium from sites including Fordo and Isfahan. It says the Post cited a 2025 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, that Iran held more than 20,000 pounds of enriched uranium.

Rodgers said a ground operation would need a safe ring around each target site and a protected route to an airstrip or pickup point. Engineers might have to dig out entrances damaged in earlier strikes while other troops held off Iranian forces.

"That would require ground forces to secure a perimeter and then create a secure convoy route to the airstrip."

Joseph Rodgers, deputy director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to The New York Post, as reported by Ynetnews on July 25, 2026.

Richard Goldberg, who served on the National Security Council during President Donald Trump's first term, told the Post that the central problem is how long a force could stay and still get everyone out. The page says the mission would also need control of an air route long enough to fly people and nuclear material to a safe place.

The page says Iran has reinforced the complex at Isfahan. Goldberg said there were reports of extra defenses, booby traps, and security forces, and that surprise is gone because both sides know where the sites are. Ynetnews says the Post cited CNN, reporting the previous month, that Iran had placed mines and explosives inside tunnels at Isfahan.

Another place in the account is Pickaxe Mountain, near Natanz. The page says Iran has moved hundreds of centrifuges there, the machines that enrich uranium. Goldberg said a special-operations mission at that site would more likely destroy the underground facility than carry the equipment out. He said troops might go in, plant explosives, and leave if airstrikes alone were not expected to collapse it. He compared that idea to what he called the Maduro raid: get in, set explosives, and get out. The page says whether bombs alone could do the job depends on what U.S. intelligence knows about how the sites are built.

What other reporting adds​

The New York Post text, as pasted the same day. A copy of the Post story on X includes the sentence Ynet summarizes: "The deeply complex 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 — a source familiar with military planning told The Post on Friday." It also quotes Rodgers: "I hate to say it, but I think the most likely way to get rid of Iran's nuclear material, at least what they currently have, is a military operation because the negotiations aren't going anywhere fast." (@OwenGregorian on X, 25 July 2026; research capture: twitter/t52__v613.md).

Two uranium numbers, not one. This article's "more than 20,000 pounds" is the Post's reading of a 2025 IAEA report and appears to count all of Iran's enriched uranium. Other reports in this section talk about the most dangerous part: about 440 kilograms, just under 1,000 pounds, enriched to 60 percent. One post citing pre-strike IAEA verification put it at 440.9 kilograms (research capture: twitter/t52__v616.md; see also Seizing Iran's uranium could take 'largest special forces operation in history'). A raid would be sized around the smaller, more dangerous stock.

The June version of the plan. A month earlier, CNN reported a similar plan that Trump paused, quoting a source: "Essentially, we'd have to invade." (see US prepared urgent ground mission to seize Iran's uranium).

What it shows​

The uranium mission keeps growing as it is planned. In March it was "the largest special forces operation in history." In June CNN's source said "Essentially, we'd have to invade." By July the Post described "thousands of ground troops storming Iran's nuclear facilities" with "a large defensive blocking force surrounding the sites."

The named units are American: Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and the Army's 21st Ordnance Company. And a Washington analyst says it plainly: "I think the most likely way to get rid of Iran's nuclear material, at least what they currently have, is a military operation because the negotiations aren't going anywhere fast." See Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid and Troop Math.

Check it yourself​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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