Prateek Tanmay
US President Donald Trump announced that a deal between America and Iran is “scheduled to get signed” on Sunday, though Iran has expressed skepticism over the timeline. He said the US military would take over the highly enriched uranium stockpiles “at the appropriate time” after the agreement is signed.
Nuclear material and weapons risks
Officials have indicated that the proposed deal to end the over three-month-old conflict in West Asia would also include the destruction and removal of uranium stockpiles from Tehran, which acts as a key component for nuclear weapons, BBC reported.
Uranium, which is a radioactive element, is made up of characterstics which play significant role in fuelling nuclear power plants, but the chemical element can also be used to develop nuclear weapons. However, it requires being highly enriched, and it causes its own issues, CNN reported.
Status of bunkered Iranian stockpiles
Trump administration has reiterated that Iranian authorities need to hand over the highly enriched uranium, which is over 400 kg but it’s buried deep in the ground after US-Israel launched strikes at the storage facilities in the Islamic Republic in June last year.
Proposed extraction and destruction plan
The US President, while referring to Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles, said in a Truth Social post that American military would extract it “at the appropriate time, when all is calm, we will go in and get the Nuclear Dust,” adding that it would be destroyed later on.
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows the Isfahan enrichment facility in Iran after being hit by Israeli airstrikes. (Maxar Technologies via AP)
Trump wrote, “At the appropriate time, when all is calm, we will go in and get the Nuclear Dust, buried deep under the powerful sunken granite mountains.”
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Detailing the possible plan for extracting the enriched uranium, Trump said that B2 bombers would be deployed to extract the material which is “buried deep under the powerful sunken granite mountains” and the stockpile would be destroyed either in Iran or the United States.
“Thanks to our beautiful B-2 Bombers and their brilliant pilots, and down blend and destroy it, whether in Iran, or the United States,” the US President said.
Challenges in execution logsitics
A CNN report, citing a senior Trump administration official, reported that the interim peace deal includes uranium being “destroyed on-site and then taken out of the country.”
But the official acknowledged that it’s “going to take a little bit of time to figure out” exactly how the things will proceed, even if the stockpile has to be destroyed.
