Trump says he rejected special forces mission to seize Iran uranium over risks

US President Donald Trump said he had considered deploying American special operations forces to retrieve Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, but ultimately rejected the idea due to the risks and logistical challenges involved.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said the option was discussed early on, before the United States carried out major military actions against Iran.

"I didn't want to be Jimmy Carter. I didn't feel like being Jimmy Carter, so that topic we did. Well, we thought about it right at the very beginning, before you saw, before we did what we did, what before we destroyed their entire military. We thought about it, and I didn't want to be in a position where you had been here to get there," he said.

Trump indicated that such an operation would have required US forces to remain inside Iran for an extended period, exposing them to significant risks in an active conflict zone.

"It's not like it's not like Venezuela, like you go in, you're there for a matter of minutes and you're out and everybody's waving goodbye as you, and you brought the cargo to be there for two weeks, you need massive equipment to airlift the equipment, and you're in a war zone."

He added that while the idea was seriously considered at the outset, it was ultimately deemed impractical.

"There was a time at the very beginning when we thought about doing that, because they would have not been watching, but they would have found out."

By Tamilla Hasanova