Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that President Donald Trump told him he would want to “go in” to Iran to remove enriched uranium from the country.
“I’m not going to talk about military means, but the president, what President Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there.’ And I think it can be done physically; that’s not the problem. If you have an agreement and you go in and you take it out, why not? That’s the best way,” Netanyahu said.
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Netanyahu made the comments in a 60 Minutes interview, previewed by CBS News‘s Face the Nation. He told the outlet that the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran is not over because he believes the regime is still holding on to enriched uranium.
“I think it accomplished a great deal, but it’s not over because there’s still nuclear material, enriched uranium, that has to be taken out of Iran,” Netanyahu said. “There is still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled. There are still proxies that Iran supports. There are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce.”
When asked how the enriched uranium could be removed, Netanyahu said on Sunday, “You go in and you take it out.” He called the idea of removal of enriched uranium a “terrifically important mission” but refused to give a timetable on it or answer if the uranium could be removed by force if there is no agreement with Iran.
“You’re going to ask me these questions, I’m going to dodge them because I’m not going to talk about our military possibilities, plans, or anything of the kind,” Netanyahu said.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to the White House for comment on Netanyahu’s statements.
Trump had pledged in mid-March not to deploy ground troops in Iran, but has weighed the need for a special operation to take the country’s enriched uranium. In an interview with the National News Desk on Sunday, Trump said the U.S. “cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon because they’re crazy.” He also said the U.S. would obtain Iran’s nuclear materials eventually.
“We’ll get that at some point,” Trump said, referring to the enriched uranium. “Whenever we want. We have it surveilled.”
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He told the outlet that Space Force is monitoring the country’s enriched uranium facilities.
“They are watching that. If somebody walked in, they can tell you his name, his address, the number of his badge. We have that very well surveilled. If anybody got near the place, we will know about it, and we’ll blow them up,” Trump said.
