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Exclusive: US military rushed to prepare ground mission to capture Iran's uranium, but Trump paused it, sources say

On 12 June 2026, CNN published Exclusive: US military rushed to prepare ground mission to capture Iran's uranium, but Trump paused it, sources say. The page does not name a lead writer. It says Kevin Liptak contributed. Citing two sources, CNN says the US military rushed plans to send ground troops into Iran to seize highly enriched uranium, and that President Donald Trump then paused the option. Highly enriched uranium is uranium processed close to the level used in a bomb. An American family should care because the sources describe a mission that would put a large American force inside Iran, with a serious chance of American dead. CNN also says the mission was not approved.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. This is CNN's account from two people familiar with the planning, with specific, checkable detail: a named general, a date, and a city. A Joint Staff spokesperson declined to comment.

What the article says

CNN says Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, flew to US Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, to be briefed in person on plans to send ground troops into Iran and take its highly enriched uranium by force. The Joint Chiefs are the most senior American military officers. The chairman is the president's top military adviser. Central Command is the headquarters for US forces in the Middle East. The sources said the briefings were so urgent that Caine left a meeting of NATO officials in Brussels and crossed the Atlantic on 19 May 2026. NATO is the US-European military alliance. CNN says one of the sources said Caine then briefed Trump. The sources treated the rush as a sign the administration had come close to approving the raid.

CNN says Trump hit pause after warnings that Iran would hit back hard, that the war would run longer, and that the world economy would be hurt further. It says he has also worried about a large number of American casualties. One source told CNN there was "lots of risk," and that it was not surprising Trump withheld a go-ahead that month. A Joint Staff spokesperson declined to comment on the preparations.

CNN says the planning happened while Trump was also saying the United States and Iran were close to a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sea lane at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, and to settle the nuclear dispute. On the Thursday before this article, CNN says, Trump said a deal might be signed soon, perhaps over the weekend. CNN's point is that talk of a deal and talk of a ground raid were happening in the same season.

The article says taking the highly enriched uranium is one of Trump's main aims that neither talks nor bombing had finished. It says he has often raised the idea of seizing it, and has held back because of American dead, which CNN says he doubts the public would accept. Speaking to Fox News about a different high-casualty idea, taking Iran's oil-export island of Kharg, Trump said he did not know if America "has the stomach for it."

CNN says the uranium raid had not been taken off the table. It points to about 970 pounds of uranium concentrated near weapons grade, spread mainly across Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow, and buried in tunnels. It says the material was still a gas at the International Atomic Energy Agency's last check in June 2025. That agency is the UN nuclear inspector. CNN says Iran shut inspectors out the next month, after US-Israeli airstrikes damaged the sites but did not destroy all of the nuclear material. It says IAEA chief Rafael Grossi warned that the stockpile could let Iran build as many as 10 bombs if it chose to weaponize it. That is his warning, as CNN reports it, not a finding that Iran has those bombs.

CNN says two sources described US intelligence as confident it knows where the material is, mostly from surveillance overhead. It says securing it would take a large ground force, including hundreds of special operators. Special operators are troops trained for raids.

"It would be insanely difficult to fish through those tunnels and all the barrels," one source said. "We'd have to set up a massive presence. Essentially, we'd have to invade."

An unnamed source, quoted by CNN on 12 June 2026.

CNN says commanders rated the mission between "High" and "Extreme" on the risk scale used for special operations, according to a source familiar with that guidance. CNN says that rating means a large number of American casualties is possible even if the raid works.

A senior administration official, CNN says, acknowledged that removing the material would be hard even if Iran agreed to it, and that the method was not settled. The official said Iran commits to destroying and removing the enriched material, then asked how that would actually be done, and said the United States is not going to go down with a backhoe and a backpack. CNN also says Iran's account of the talks is different. Iranian state media, as CNN reports it, said Iran would not give up management of the Strait of Hormuz and that any deal required the quick release of 24 billion dollars in frozen Iranian funds.

CNN says a ground raid could also bring a wider economic shock. Three people told CNN that Iran has discussed having the Houthis, its allied force in Yemen, close the Bab-al-Mandab, another narrow sea lane at the mouth of the Red Sea, if talks fail and the war restarts. CNN says Iran had held that card because it could wreck the talks. On the ground itself, a source told CNN the larger danger to US troops would be booby-trapped tunnels and surface-to-air and shoulder-fired missiles, because Iran's standing army had been badly weakened. CNN says Iran still holds a large share of its drones and ballistic missiles.

CNN says Caine and other commanders had already warned about the scale, the complexity, and the American casualties of a long war with Iran, and about the drain on weapons stocks. On Thursday in the Oval Office, CNN says, Trump brushed the uranium option off and said nobody is getting close to it because it is buried under a mountain.

What other reporting and posts add

Israel's leader had publicly called for exactly this. On 10 May 2026, nine days before Caine's reported flight to Tampa, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS's 60 Minutes that the war was "not over, because there's still nuclear material, enriched uranium that has to be taken out of Iran." Asked how: "You go in, and you take it out." Asked whose special forces, he said: "Well, I'm not gonna talk about military means, but the pres-- what President Trump has said to me, 'I want to go in there.' and I think it can be done physically." CBS News transcript, 10 May 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v145.md) Critics read the interview as Israel's leader speaking for an American ground mission; one asked, "after Israel already stated there would be no IDF ground troops entering Iran, does that mean American troops are expected to carry the burden of a ground war?" @BenSwann_, 12 May 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v148.md)

The US plan went back to March. Axios reported in late March, as The Independent retold it, that "Plans for ground operations to secure enriched uranium within Iran's nuclear facilities have also been prepared by the U.S. military," with an air-strike alternative that "would not require boots on the ground." The Independent, 26 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t56__v668.md) For the March expert view of how hard it would be, see 'A million things could go wrong'.

Trump's own hesitation, in other words. On 11 June, the day before this article, Trump told Fox & Friends he was not sure the country had the appetite for a bigger operation against Kharg Island: "I think they'd like to see us come home." See Trump vows to seize Iran's Kharg Island.

What it shows

CNN's account shows how close the country came to a ground operation inside Iran while the public was told none was planned. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs flew from Brussels to Tampa on 19 May to be briefed in person, and one source said, "Essentially, we'd have to invade." The President paused the mission; he did not cancel it. On 25 July the New York Post reported the operation "would involve thousands of ground troops storming Iran's nuclear facilities." Set that beside the public line that the material was buried and out of reach. See Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid and No Boots on the Ground.

Check it yourself

Exclusive: US military rushed to prepare ground mission to capture Iran's uranium, but Trump paused it, sources say, CNN, 12 June 2026. No second source was opened for this page.

Status: Donald Trump is alive. Dan Caine is alive.

Background for a new reader: the United States and Israel began bombing Iran on 28 February 2026, with the stated aim of stopping an Iranian nuclear bomb. A ceasefire in April did not settle the core problem, Iran's buried stockpile of highly enriched uranium. This CNN story says that by mid-May, American commanders were preparing to go in on the ground and take it, which experts had said would need a large force and could cost many American lives.

Research captures: twitter/t13__v145.md, twitter/t13__v148.md, twitter/t56__v668.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26