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May–June 2026: The Uranium Raid That Was Paused, Not Cancelled
In the spring of 2026, while the public was told a deal with Iran was close, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs flew across the Atlantic to be briefed on sending American ground troops into Iran. The mission came, in the words of CNN's sources, very close to approval. It was paused. It was not cancelled. This page puts the dates in order.
The timeline
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 10 May 2026 | Netanyahu on 60 Minutes: the uranium "has to be taken out of Iran"; "You go in, and you take it out"; Trump told him "I want to go in there" | CBS transcript |
| 16 May 2026 | Rubio: "Operation Epic Fury is concluded." NBC: a new phase would get a new name to restart the War Powers clock | Perera on X |
| 19 May 2026 | Gen. Dan Caine leaves a NATO meeting in Brussels and flies to CENTCOM in Tampa for an in-person briefing on the uranium ground mission, then briefs Trump | CNN |
| 19 May 2026 | A senior Pentagon official declines "to rule out renewed US military action or ground troop deployment in Iran" | DeItaone on Threads |
| 4 Jun 2026 | Trump reveals he turned down a plan: "You have to be there for two weeks ... I didn't feel like being like Jimmy Carter" | Times of Israel |
| 10 Jun 2026 | Former Israeli defense minister Gallant: a joint US–Israeli seizure "should have been done" | Jerusalem Post |
| 11 Jun 2026 | Trump on Kharg: "I don't know if America has the stomach for it" | Military Times |
| 12 Jun 2026 | CNN reports the paused raid; carried the same day by Ynetnews, Israel National News, and Enlace Judío, and the next day by Walla and the Jerusalem Post | CNN |
| 25 Jul 2026 | The New York Post: planning for "thousands of ground troops storming Iran's nuclear facilities" | i24NEWS |
What CNN reported
CNN, 12 June 2026, citing two sources: Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, flew to Central Command headquarters in Tampa on 19 May to be briefed in person "on plans to send ground troops into Iran and take its highly enriched uranium by force." The briefings were urgent enough that he left a NATO meeting in Brussels. One source said he then briefed Trump. The sources treated the rush as a sign the administration had come close to approving the raid. Trump "hit pause" after warnings that Iran would hit back hard, that the war would run longer, that the world economy would suffer, and that American casualties could be high. Commanders rated the risk between "High" and "Extreme." A source: "Essentially, we'd have to invade." CNN added that the mission "had not been taken off the table" (CNN).
How Israel read it
Walla's Amit Avitan, in Hebrew: according to the sources, "the very existence of such senior and urgent briefings shows how close the administration was to approving the high-risk ground operation" (Walla, 13 June 2026). Ynetnews headlined it "US prepared urgent ground mission to seize Iran's uranium, but Trump blocked it" (Ynetnews). Israel National News: "Trump paused 'extreme risk' commando raid inside Iran over fear of high casualties" (Israel National News). The Jerusalem Post ran it as "US ground mission to capture Iran's uranium paused by Trump" (Jerusalem Post). Enlace Judío ran it in Spanish (Enlace Judío).
Put two dates side by side. On 10 May Israel's prime minister told Americans on television that the uranium must be taken out, and that "I want to go in there" was Trump's own wish. Nine days later America's top general was in Tampa being briefed on exactly that mission.
Why "paused" matters
A paused plan is a ready plan. Every element that made the raid possible in May was still in place afterward: the plan, the units, the 82nd Airborne held in the region into 2027, and the stated war aim. In July the New York Post reported that US special operations forces were "waiting in the wings" for "the most sophisticated operation in military history," a mission requiring "thousands of ground troops" (Owen Gregorian, pasting the Post). In August, the Associated Press, via the Times of Israel, wrote that "Without permission from Iran, experts have said seizing it would be a dangerous mission requiring a sizable deployment of US troops into the country" (Times of Israel, 27 August 2026). Former counterterrorism director Joe Kent, in a September interview outlined by Akbar Ganji, feared a post-midterm "grand finale": "a raid to physically seize uranium," with boots on the ground as smarter munitions run low (Ganji on X; an outline, not a transcript).
The pause came from one man's hesitation over casualties, not from any law or vote. Congress had not authorized the mission and was not shown the plan. What stops it next time is the same thing that stopped it in May: whether the president decides American families will accept the dead.
Status: Dan Caine is alive. Donald Trump is alive. Benjamin Netanyahu is alive. Marco Rubio is alive. Yoav Gallant is alive. Joe Kent is alive.
Sources
- CNN, 12 June 2026 — the paused raid.
- Walla, 13 June 2026, Ynetnews, Israel National News, 12 June 2026, Jerusalem Post, 13 June 2026 — Israeli coverage.
- Times of Israel, 5 June 2026 — Trump's account.
- CBS News, 10 May 2026 — Netanyahu.
- DeItaone on Threads, 19 May 2026 — Pentagon leaves the door open.
- Times of Israel / AP, 27 August 2026 — "a sizable deployment of US troops."
Last Updated: 2026-09-26