President Donald Trump said only the U.S. and China can retrieve enriched uranium from Iran’s buried nuclear sites after they were “obliterated” by strikes last year, making trump meet the press the setting for a new claim about who could touch Tehran’s nuclear material. Trump tied that access to negotiations with Iran and said he would be willing to meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei if the talks produce a deal.
Trump on Iran uranium access
Trump’s comment narrowed the field to two countries, a striking claim because it places future access to Iran’s enriched uranium in the hands of Washington and Beijing. He also said his red line for restarting the war with Iran would be if U.S. troops were killed in the Middle East.
The statement came while negotiations between Washington and Tehran are ongoing. Trump’s wording pushed the discussion beyond a general diplomatic opening and into a concrete condition: any deal would have to clear the question of who can reach the uranium at sites he described as buried and “obliterated.”
Operation Epic Fury and CENTCOM
The Trump administration launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran on Feb. 28, and U.S. Central Command said American forces shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM also said U.S. forces later struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island.
That military sequence sits behind Trump’s new language about Iran’s nuclear material. The latest U.S. action in the region and the reference to buried sites together frame the dispute as one that now spans both access to nuclear material and the risk of another round of direct confrontation.
Valizadeh and Jerusalem
The human cost of the wider standoff is visible in Tehran’s Evin Prison, where American journalist Reza Valizadeh is being detained. In a recording shared with CBS News, Valizadeh said, “While three American citizens and I are imprisoned in Iran, 20 Iranian sailors were released by the United States on May 21 and returned to Iran.” He also said, “The U.S. government could have demanded our exchange in return. However, it did not happen.”
The James W. Foley Legacy Foundation called for urgent U.S. action after the voice recording was released. Separately, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem issued an advisory warning U.S. citizens in the region to exercise increased caution, particularly in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel and Lebanon
On Friday, Israeli airstrikes killed at least six people in Lebanon after Hezbollah rejected the latest ceasefire agreement with Israel. Israeli troops have pushed farther into southern Lebanon than at any point in the last 26 years, and the Israel Defense Forces said it struck 650 Hezbollah targets over the past week and killed 125 Hezbollah fighters.
Trump’s uranium claim leaves the next diplomatic test inside the Washington-Tehran channel: whether negotiations can produce a deal that he says would open the way for a meeting with Mojtaba Khamenei. If that does not happen, the president’s own red line remains tied to U.S. troop deaths in the Middle East.
