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Globes (WSJ): If seizing Iran's nuclear material is the endgame, this is what it would take

On 21 March 2026, Globes, an Israeli business daily, published in Hebrew אם השתלטות על החומר הגרעיני של איראן היא מהלך הסיום, זה מה שיידרש. The byline is מייקל ר. גורדון ולורנס נורמן, Michael R. Gordon and Laurence Norman, under a Wall Street Journal tag. The page says it was updated on 22 March 2026. The deck says it would be hard for the United States to get control of Iran's enriched uranium, but that leaving it there is very dangerous. Enriched uranium is uranium processed so more of it is the isotope that can fuel a reactor or, at higher levels, a bomb. An American family should care because former American officers, as this article quotes them, say seizing that material against Iranian resistance could mean hundreds of soldiers on one or more sites for days.

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 what named former officers and experts, including James Stavridis and Richard Nephew, told The Wall Street Journal, reprinted in Hebrew by Globes. The English Journal article was not opened separately.

What the article says​

The article says Trump has called preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon one of the main aims of the war he is running. Absent regime change, or at least a deal in which Tehran's leaders hand over the enriched uranium, it says that could mean seizing the fissile material the state holds.

השגת מטרה זו מול התנגדות מצד כוחות איראניים תהיה מבצע צבאי מורכב, שעשוי לדרוש פריסת מאות חיילים באתר אחד או יותר למשך ימים, כך סבורים קציני צבא אמריקאים לשעבר ומומחים.

That is the article's sentence, as Globes printed it on 21 March 2026. The believers are former American military officers and experts. The article says the U.S. military has elite teams trained to remove radioactive material from a war zone. It says finding and seizing hundreds of kilograms of highly enriched uranium would still be a complex piece of choreography, and could carry risks.

It says Trump has said he would not rule out sending ground forces to Iran if that were necessary. It also says that last week he signaled a seizure of the enriched uranium was not close. On Fox News radio, as the article quotes him, he said they are not focused on that, but at some point maybe they will be, and that right now they are focused on destroying Iran's missiles and drones. That is a denial of a current seizure plan, sitting next to a refusal to rule ground forces out forever.

The article says that before Israel and the United States bombed Iranian sites in June of the previous year, Iran was estimated to hold more than 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, and almost 200 kilograms of 20 percent material that could be converted more easily to 90 percent, which it treats as weapons grade. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear inspector, is quoted as believing the uranium is mainly at two of the three sites struck in June: an underground tunnel at Isfahan, and a cache at Natanz. He is quoted as saying recently that about half of the 60 percent material is in the Isfahan tunnels.

The article says Secretary of State Marco Rubio has acknowledged that Iran is not enriching uranium now. It says Grossi's agency has not seen signs that Iran tried to move the material. It says Iran's leaders insist in public that they do not want a bomb. It says that if the stockpiles stay with an Iranian government trying to survive, they could be used to pursue a bomb. Experts, it says, believe Iran still has enrichment centrifuges and could build a new underground enrichment site.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, the article says, told CBS early that week that Iran's most enriched uranium is still under the rubble of the June American and Israeli strikes. It says he said Tehran has no plan at the moment to try to recover it, and would consider doing so only under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision. His line, as the article quotes it, is that for now they have no plan to take it out from under the rubble. That is a denial of an Iranian recovery effort, not a denial that the material is there.

The article says U.S. military officials have published statistics on how American air strikes are hitting Iran's navy and its missile and drone arsenal, but have said little about the administration's hopes of dismantling what remains of the nuclear program. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is quoted, about a week earlier, saying the United States keeps the full range of options, that the president remains focused on nuclear capabilities, and that one option is Iran deciding to give those capabilities up.

The article says the White House might instead leave the stockpile in Iranian hands, with a warning that any attempt to move it or restart enrichment would bring more American strikes. It says that, given Israeli penetration of the program and U.S. satellite watching, there is a good chance Tehran's work would be caught.

If Trump did try to seize the uranium, retired Admiral James Stavridis, a former NATO commander and former head of Southern Command, is quoted saying it could potentially be the largest special-forces operation in history. Former military officials, the article says, described the pieces: scouts or other combat troops to secure the compound; engineers with digging equipment to get through tons of rubble at the underground entrances and to check for mines and booby traps; a local airfield, or a makeshift one, to fly equipment in and the material out; ground forces and aircraft to stop Iranian drones and missiles; and a quick-reaction force if more soldiers were needed fast.

Richard Nephew, a former Iran director on the U.S. National Security Council, is quoted saying any operation would be very large and very complicated, and that more than a thousand personnel would be needed at one site. He is quoted fearing drone strikes, improvised bombs and similar traps, contamination, and the long time people would have to stay on site. He is also quoted saying that if time were short, the United States could try to dilute the material on site by mixing it with natural uranium, or destroy it, though that could cause chemical contamination.

Eyal Hulata, a former Israeli national security adviser, now a senior international fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, is quoted saying that if the war ends without the United States dealing with the fissile stockpile, or with an underground tunnel network in which Iran could start enriching again, called Pickaxe on the page, there will be a serious problem. He is quoted adding that the United States and Israel will have to find a way to deal with them one way or another.

What other reporting adds​

The Journal's next report, nine days later. A digest of US press coverage on 30 March 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; research capture: twitter/t49__v587.md). The same week, historian Max Boot described special operations to secure "nearly 1000 pounds of highly enriched uranium" as one of the options, and said it had not been done (CFR, The President's Inbox, 18 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t52__v617.md).

What followed. In May, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told CBS's 60 Minutes: "You go in, and you take it out." (CBS News transcript, 10 May 2026; research capture: twitter/t13__v145.md). In June, CNN reported a ground mission had been prepared and then paused by Trump (see Trump paused 'extreme risk' commando raid). In July, the New York Post reported planning for "thousands of ground troops storming Iran's nuclear facilities," and Richard Goldberg said a raid on Pickaxe Mountain makes sense if "you don't think you can collapse the facility by airstrike" (as pasted by @OwenGregorian on X, 25 July 2026; research capture: twitter/t52__v613.md). Hulata's worry about Pickaxe, in this article, became the center of that later reporting.

What it shows​

The Wall Street Journal, reprinted for Israeli readers, sized the uranium mission: hundreds of soldiers on one or more sites for days, more than a thousand personnel at a single site in Richard Nephew's estimate, engineers to dig through rubble, an airfield, and a quick-reaction force. A former Israeli national security adviser, Eyal Hulata, said the United States and Israel will have to deal with the stockpile one way or another. Trump would not rule ground forces out.

From there the plan grew: Netanyahu's "You go in, and you take it out" in May, a ground mission prepared and paused in June, and "thousands of ground troops" in the July reporting. The Israeli concern and the American soldiers travel together. See Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid.

Check it yourself​

Status: Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, James Stavridis, Richard Nephew, Rafael Grossi, Abbas Araghchi, and Eyal Hulata are alive. This page reports what the article says they said. It does not accuse them of a crime.

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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