"They said 'you're going to have to take it. We were going to go with them. But they changed their mind,'" President Donald Trump told reporters on May 11, 2026, describing Tehran's alleged reversal on allowing the U.S. to remove Iran’s highly enriched uranium (HEU).
U.S. and Israeli public messaging on retrieving Iran’s HEU
Over the weekend and into Monday, public statements from Washington and Jerusalem converged on one point: the removal of Iran’s HEU is a central objective. President Trump told reporters that Iran initially offered to accompany U.S. personnel into facilities storing HEU damaged during last year’s Operation Midnight Hammer but then “changed their mind,” and he reiterated that “they cannot have a nuclear weapon.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to 60 Minutes, was blunt about the physical goal — “You go in, and you take it out” — while declining to discuss military particulars.
Axios reported that the Israeli government wants Trump to order a special forces operation to secure Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile; the outlet added that Israeli officials say Trump is hesitant because the mission is “highly risky.”
Negotiations, Iranian terms, and the fragile ceasefire
The diplomatic track between Washington and Tehran remained stalled. Iran published what it described as its terms, which the country’s IRIB state broadcaster said made no mention of the uranium and instead included demands that the U.S. pay war damages to Iran, recognize Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, end U.S. sanctions, and release Iran’s blocked assets.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei characterized the offer as reasonable and framed U.S. maritime actions as “piracy,” asking rhetorically whether demands for safe passage through the Strait were excessive. President Trump publicly dismissed Iran’s response as a “piece of garbage” he did not finish reading and said the ceasefire was on “massive life support.” Two U.S. officials told Axios the president is “leaning toward taking some form of military action against Iran to increase pressure on the regime and force concessions on its nuclear program.”
Military options and deployments under consideration
Officials and media accounts described a menu of military options under consideration. Trump said U.S. forces are surveilling the Isfahan site and warned that “If anybody got near the place, we will know about it — and we'll blow them up.” He is also reportedly weighing whether to reconstitute Project Freedom — an effort to guide commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz that he paused after about 36 hours — and whether to resume a bombing campaign against targets identified but not yet struck.
The Royal Navy announced that the Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon will forward-deploy to the Middle East to contribute to a potential multinational mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz, and noted the ship could help establish an air defense bubble and support mine-clearance efforts. The United Kingdom and France planned a meeting of over 40 nations to map a multinational plan to restore confidence for commercial shipping.
U.S. Central Command said it has redirected 62 commercial ships and disabled four attempting to run the U.S. blockade since April 13, and Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas cited Copernicus satellite imagery showing no supertanker loadings on Kharg Island on May 8, 9 and 11 — “the longest stretch without loadings since the early days of the war,” he wrote.
Regional moves: bases, aircraft, and covert strikes
Multiple countries and actors moved in ways that complicate any operation. CBS News reported that Pakistan quietly allowed Iranian military aircraft to park on its airfields, potentially shielding them from U.S. airstrikes; Iran also parked civilian aircraft in Afghanistan, CBS said. The Wall Street Journal reported that the United Arab Emirates secretly carried out strikes on Iran, including an early-April attack on the Lavan Island refinery the paper said the UAE had not publicly acknowledged.
Iraq’s Security Media Cell publicly denied the existence of foreign military bases on Iraqi soil after a Wall Street Journal story that alleged a clandestine Israeli outpost in Iraq; Baghdad said a clash on May 3 involved Iraqi forces and unidentified detachments and stressed there were “no unauthorized forces or bases currently on Iraqi territory.” Iraqi lawmakers nonetheless demanded investigations and accountability following the reporting.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah released footage claiming FPV drone attacks on Iron Dome batteries in northern Israel; Rafael’s chairman Yuval Steinitz told a Jerusalem conference that Iron Dome had been “around 98%, even 99%” effective since October 2023, and that Iran had launched about 1,500 ballistic missiles at Israel in two rounds of fighting since 2024, of which “only several dozens” were not intercepted.
What this means for the president, the Israeli government, and commercial shipping
- The president: He is publicly weighing military options — from a special operations retrieval of HEU to reactivating Project Freedom and resuming strikes — and will press the issue with Chinese leadership during a planned meeting in Beijing later this week, according to several accounts.
- The Israeli government: Axios reports it seeks U.S. authorization for a special forces operation to secure Iran’s HEU; Israeli leaders are publicly emphasizing the mission’s importance while avoiding operational details.
- Commercial shippers and maritime coalitions: Copernicus imagery showing a pause in Kharg Island loadings, CENTCOM’s accounting of 62 redirected ships, and the Royal Navy’s forward deployments underscore the immediate operational and economic pressures on global shipping routes tied to the Strait of Hormuz.
With talks stalled, public threats and cross-border maneuvers escalating, and military planners openly discussing high-risk options, the central unresolved question remains whether the fragile ceasefire can withstand coordinated pressure to secure Iran’s HEU. President Trump’s meeting with China’s leader later this week — where Iran and the Strait of Hormuz are expected to figure prominently — is the next named milestone in a rapidly shifting picture.
