US President Donald Trump said Thursday that American forces could remove Iran’s enriched uranium even without Washington making a deal with the Islamic Republic, but said there’s “no reason to” because, he claimed, the regime can’t access it anyway.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump revealed that he had thought about sending US troops to retrieve the buried stockpile at the very start of the war, but indicated he declined to do so because of the risks and potential complications.

“I didn’t feel like being like Jimmy Carter,” he said, alluding to the former president’s failed effort to rescue 52 US Embassy staff held hostage by Iran in 1980.

Trump claimed that a deal with Iran would ensure the removal or disposal of the uranium, something Iran has denied. “As it stands right now, we will go in, in the not too distant future [to deal with it by agreement],” he said.

“We could get it right now. I don’t think they could stop us if we wanted, but there’s no reason to. It’s entombed,” the president said.

“It’s very safe down there,” he added. “We have cameras, every angle of those three sites are being watched at all times. If anybody went there, we’ll see exactly what’s happening and we’ll blow it up a little bit further….”

“[It’s ] very hard to get that material, but I still nevertheless want it,” he said, but added: “I don’t want to do it if we’re in conflict. I don’t want to put men in that kind of danger.”

Trump detailed, for the first time, a plan he said he did not approve that would have sent American troops into Iran to collect what he commonly calls the “nuclear dust.”

“I didn’t want to be in a position where you had…,” he said, then paused before resuming:........

© The Times of Israel