US President Donald Trump said late Monday that recovering uranium from Iran would be a “long and difficult process” following last year’s US strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities.Posting on Truth Social, Trump claimed that “Operation Midnight Hammer was a complete and total obliteration of the Nuclear Dust sites in Iran.” He added, “Therefore, digging it out will be a long and difficult process.“Trump also criticised sections of the American media, writing that “Fake News CNN, and other corrupt Media Networks and Platforms, fail to give our great aviators the credit they deserve – Always trying to demean and belittle – LOSERS!!!”The US president frequently uses the phrase “nuclear dust” to describe Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, which Washington alleges Tehran has accumulated as part of efforts to build an atomic bomb. At times, Trump has also used the term to refer to debris and residual material left after US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.Trump has repeatedly maintained that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile would eventually be transferred to US territory, despite Tehran firmly rejecting any such proposal. Iran’s foreign ministry has denied plans to hand over the material.The United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran on February 28, targeting facilities linked to Tehran’s nuclear programme. Israel said the military action was necessary to eliminate what it described as “the existential threat” posed by the Islamic republic.Israeli officials have since claimed that Iran accelerated efforts to acquire an atomic weapon following the end of the 12-day war last June. That conflict began with Israeli attacks and later involved US airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, including a uranium enrichment plant. Trump told PBS News that Iran was “supposed to be there” at the talks in Pakistan. “We agreed to be there,” he said, warning that if the ceasefire expired “then lots of bombs start going off”.
