– British opposition leader Nigel Farage is taking aim at his country’s prime minister for not supporting the U.S. in its military strikes against Iran.

‘I think not to support America when it asks for support is a pretty extraordinary thing to have done.,’ Farage, the leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, said in an exclusive interview Saturday with Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump has blasted Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer for initially blocking the U.S. from using British military bases, specifically Diego Garcia — a strategic base located on an Indian Ocean island — for strikes against Iran during Operation Epic Fury. Starmer later permitted the use of the bases for ‘defensive strikes’ after Trump’s complaints. 

Starmer hasn’t spoken to Trump since they connected on a call last weekend, after the U.S. and Israel launched their strikes on Iran. The British prime minister has made clear his country would not be joining the U.S. in attacking Iran, emphasizing he didn’t believe in ‘regime change from the skies.’

Trump, taking a jab at Starmer, said earlier this week, ‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with.’

Farage criticized Starmer for not changing his stance, ‘even now, despite the fact that we’ve got an RAF base in Cyprus that’s been under attack, we’ve got allies of ours in the Gulf that are under attack.’

‘I think there’s been less than wholehearted support has come for the Americans in this endeavor. And I think the British Prime Minister on the world stage, he’s upset the Americans,’ Farage said. ‘He’s upset the Cypriots. He’s upset the Gulf states. And he’s pretty friendless at the moment.’

Farage, who seven years ago founded the populist Brexit Party, which later transformed into the Reform UK party, was interviewed ahead of an appearance at an annual economic conference in Florida hosted by the Club for Growth, an influential and politically potent political group that pushes for fiscal responsibility.

Starmer has been feeling Trump’s wrath not only for their differences over the attack on Iran, but also over the British deal to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, the Indian Ocean archipelago where Diego Garcia is located, to Mauritius. Starmer has argued his lease-back deal is the only way to secure the British-U.S. military base on Diego Garcia.

Farage, who has been vocal in his opposition to the deal, told Fox News Digital that ‘outside of America itself,’ Diego Garcia ‘is the most important base you’ve got in the whole world. Now it’s there as part of British sovereignty. We have a treaty between us that goes back to 1966 and Keir Starmer is on the verge of giving away the sovereignty of the Chagos islands and Diego Garcia to Mauritius.’

‘If Trump initially had problems with the Brits over using the base, just think what it will be like with the heavily Chinese-influenced Mauritians. They already have said they believe that America should not have struck Iran, that it was against international law, then are calling for a ceasefire,’ Farage said.

Farage, who said his opposition to the deal was a key factor in his weekend trip to the U.S., said, ‘I would just urge the president, this administration, stay firm. Tell the British government you will not accept giving away of sovereignty to Mauritius, and let’s ensure a future for Diego Garcia. I think it’s really important.’

Farage, who’s hoping to become Britain’s next prime minister, argued that Starmer’s relationship with Trump is beyond repair.

‘I think the personal relationship between Keir Starmer and Donald Trump has gone. I mean, Trump can be forgiving, but, you know, that would take a long time. So I think that breakdown is there,’ he said.

But as for the longstanding bonds between the two countries, known as the ‘special relationship,’ Farage was more optimistic.

‘The special relationship went through bad times in the past. We had a massive fallout 70 years ago over Suez, but we got back together again. I’m convinced it can, and it will, be mended,’ he predicted.

. – One week into the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, two Republican senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee say the military operation has ‘degraded’ Tehran’s ability to strike back.

But in exclusive interviews with Fox News Digital, Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Ted Budd of North Carolina emphasized that the fighting will not lead to U.S. involvement in ‘forever wars’ in the volatile Middle East.

‘Our military is doing a great job,’ Scott said. And pointing to Iran, he said, ‘They want to destroy America. We’ve got to stop them.’

Budd highlighted that ‘we have significantly degraded Iran’s ability to shoot back at us… their capacities are degraded. We’ve had great success.’

Budd and Scott were interviewed as they attended an economic conference in Florida hosted by the Club for Growth, an influential and politically potent conservative group that pushes for fiscal responsibility.

President Donald Trump, who called for Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender,’ said on Saturday that Tehran will be ‘hit very hard’ and warned the U.S. is considering ‘areas and groups’ not previously considered to target.

Over the past week, ‘Operation Epic Fury’ has widened in scope as Iran has retaliated against a growing number of nations in the region. This week, the Republican-controlled House and Senate, in separate votes nearly entirely along party lines, rejected moves by Democrats to restrict the president’s ability to steer the fighting.

The president said on Thursday, in an interview with Axios, that he should be involved in choosing Iran’s next leader. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the initial strikes against Iran a week ago.

And there are concerns among many on the right that the strikes against Iran could lead to prolonged American military involvement in the region, which Trump has repeatedly campaigned against during his three runs for the presidency.

‘Trump doesn’t want to be in forever wars. Every time I’ve talked to him, he doesn’t want that,’ Scott said. ‘But I think what we do want to make sure we don’t have another Ayatollah that wants to… chant Death to America and death to our allies and try to destroy us.’

Budd added that ‘we’re not up for forever wars. We want to get in, get this thing done, get out and have peace for our country and the rest of the region.’

The latest Fox News national poll indicated that American voters are divided on the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, even as a majority sees the country as a security risk. 

Sixty-one percent of those questioned viewed Iran as a danger to the U.S., according to the survey conducted Feb. 28-March 2. But that concern did not translate into majority support for the current U.S. military action, as 50% approved and 50% disapproved.

Support for the attacks was lower in national polling from other news organizations.

But the Fox News poll and the other surveys indicated widespread support among Republicans.

‘Trump’s doing the right thing. He’s saving American lives by making sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon or ballistic missile. So he’s doing the right thing,’ Scott emphasized.

Budd added, ‘I’m very excited [about] what President Trump’s done… The goal is American prosperity and American safety, and that’s what President Trump wants.’

Oil prices have shot up since the start of the fighting, instantly resulting in higher costs for gasoline across America. That’s a major concern for Republicans as they aim to keep control of the House and Senate majorities in this year’s midterm elections.

‘Hopefully it’s all going to be short term. Hopefully… the demolition of the Iranian military will happen quickly and actually will get lower oil prices,’ Scott said.

Budd acknowledged that ‘we are going to have some short-term disruptions.’

But the senator was optimistic that ‘very soon we’ll have gas prices much cheaper than ever before. We were already on that pathway. President Trump is all about stability. He’s all about the price of oil.’

King Charles III will reflect on ‘the increasing pressures of conflict’ across the world in a ‘time of great challenge’ during a speech planned for Monday, according to multiple reports. 

‘We join together on this Commonwealth Day at a time of great challenge and great possibility,’ a preview of the 77-year-old’s Commonwealth Day speech says.

The king’s speech continued: ‘Across our world, communities and nations face the increasing pressures of conflict, climate change and rapid transformation. Yet it is often in such testing moments that the enduring spirit of the Commonwealth is most clearly revealed.’

The speech will come a little more than a week after the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Iran, which British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the United Kingdom didn’t take part in for the sake of their national interest.

‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with,’ President Donald Trump said earlier this week in a criticism of Starmer amid a perceived lack of support for the U.S. and Israel’s joint military operation against Iran.

‘By the way, I’m not happy with the U.K. either,’ the president said, referring to Starmer blocking the United States’ use of U.K. bases to launch attacks on Iran.

Britain has since allowed the U.S. to use its bases in the region for defensive purposes against Iran’s retaliatory strikes. It has also mobilized fighter jets and plans to send a destroyer and possibly an aircraft carrier. 

The president referenced the Chagos Islands Tuesday, which are British territories in the Indian Ocean, saying it has taken ‘three, four days for us to work out where we can land there.’

‘It would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours, so we are very surprised,’ he said.

Later, the president said the United Kingdom has been ‘very, very uncooperative with that stupid island.’ 

‘It’s a shame,’ Trump said. ‘That country, the U.K., and I love that country, I love it.’

‘This is not the age of Churchill,’ he added.

Trump slammed Starmer again on Saturday, accusing the prime minister of joining the war after the U.S. had ‘already won.’

‘The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!’

Starmer has defended his decision to stay out of the conflict, saying the U.K. was ‘not involved in the ​initial strikes against Iran, and we will not join offensive action now.’

‘But in the face of Iran’s barrage of missiles and ⁠drones, we will protect our people in the region,’ Starmer said in an address Monday to Parliament. ‘President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the ​initial strikes, but it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest. That is what I’ve done, and I stand by it.’

The king and other senior royals will gather at Westminster Abbey on Monday for the annual Commonwealth Day celebration, which recognizes the 56 countries voluntarily connected to the U.K., many of which were once part of the British Empire.

The preview of the speech continues: ‘Working together, we can ensure that the Commonwealth continues to stand as a force for good — grounded in community, committed to the kind of restorative sustainability that has a return on investment, enriched by culture, steadfast in its care for our planet, and united in friendship and in the service of its people.’

Charles’ speech at the abbey will also be the largest gathering of the royal family since former Prince Andrew was arrested on Feb. 19.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump on Saturday slammed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, saying he was joining the war in Iran after the U.S. has ‘already won.’

‘The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!’

Trump’s statement came after the U.K. Ministry of Defense said that one of the country’s two aircraft carriers had been placed on advanced readiness in Portsmouth, England, for a possible mobilization to the Middle East, according to the BBC.

A British destroyer, HMS Dragon, is also in Portsmouth, waiting to leave for Cyprus after delays.

Starmer said that while the U.K. wasn’t involved in the strikes, they are ‘operating defensively in the region.’

In an address to the British people on Sunday, Starmer condemned ‘indiscriminate’ attacks by Iran following the U.S. strikes, adding, ‘the only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source.’

He added that Britain has agreed to the United States’ request to use British bases for that ‘limited’ purpose.

After the strikes, Trump told the Telegraph in the U.K. that he was ‘very disappointed’ in Starmer, claiming it ‘took far too long’ for the prime minister to allow the U.S. to use British bases in the region. 

British fighter jets are also flying over Jordan, Cyprus and Qatar to strengthen defense in the region, and a Merlin helicopter is on the way for additional airborne surveillance, according to the Ministry of Defense.

‘While the region has been plunged into chaos, my focus is providing calm, levelheaded leadership in the national interest,’ Starmer said this week. ‘That means deploying our military and diplomatic strength to protect our people. And it means having the strength to stand firm by our values and our principles, no matter the pressure to do otherwise. The longstanding British position is that the best way forward for the regime and world is a negotiated settlement with Iran where they give up their nuclear ambitions.’

He said that’s why he made the decision that the U.K. would not join the initial coordinated strikes launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28.

In Parliament this week, Starmer added, ‘We all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learned those lessons. Any U.K. ‌actions must ⁠always have a lawful basis, and a viable, thought-through plan,’ Starmer said. ‘This government does not believe in regime change from the skies.’

Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss reposted Trump’s Saturday Truth Social comments on X, writing, ‘Justified and damning.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to Starmer’s office for comment.

President Donald Trump said Friday that during a meeting with defense executives they had agreed to increase production of what he called ‘exquisite class’ weapons by four times as his administration looks to accelerate weapons production while military operations against Iran continue.

‘Expansion began three months prior to the meeting, and Plants and Production of many of these Weapons are already under way,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social after the meeting. 

‘We have a virtually unlimited supply of Medium and Upper Medium Grade Munitions, which we are using, as an example, in Iran, and recently used in Venezuela,’ he said. ‘Regardless, however, we have also increased Orders at these levels.’

Trump said the meeting concluded with executives agreeing to come back to the White House in two months. 

The White House emphasized the session was scheduled weeks ago and was not convened in response to immediate battlefield shortages. Officials described the meeting as part of a broader effort to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and speed production of American-made weapons.

Companies in attendance Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX Corporation, Boeing, Honeywell, BAE Systems and L3Harris Technologies. 

The meeting comes as U.S. forces remain engaged in Operation Epic Fury, a campaign targeting Iranian military assets following coordinated U.S.-Israeli strikes. Administration officials have maintained that U.S. readiness remains strong, even as the pace of missile defense operations has drawn scrutiny on Capitol Hill.

During the 2025 12-day Iran conflict, U.S. forces fired more than 150 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors — roughly a quarter of the global inventory — to shield Israel and U.S. assets from Iranian missile attacks, according to defense assessments. Patriot PAC-3 MSE missiles are currently produced at a rate of roughly 600 to 650 annually, with replenishment timelines measured in months or years rather than weeks.

U.S. and Israeli officials previously estimated that Iran had a large ballistic missile arsenal — roughly 2,000 to 3,000 missiles of various types at the outset of the conflict. Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper said Thursday Iran’s missile attacks have decreased 90% since the start of the conflict.

Defense planners have described missile defense inventories as part of a broader strategic balancing act. The same high-end systems used to protect U.S. bases and partners in the Middle East are also supplied to Ukraine and positioned in the Indo-Pacific, creating what some analysts characterize as a ‘zero-sum’ competition for inventory across theaters.

Lawmakers emerging from recent classified briefings have raised questions about sustainability if operations expand. 

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., warned the campaign could become a ‘math problem,’ balancing incoming missile volumes against finite interceptor supplies and production capacity. 

Other members, including Republicans briefed on the operation, have said officials assured Congress U.S. forces remain in strong shape.

Current and former defense officials have drawn a distinction between offensive strike weapons — which can often be surged from prepositioned stocks — and defensive interceptors such as Patriot and THAAD systems, which require longer production timelines and cannot be rapidly manufactured at scale.

Democrats may be celebrating Kristi Noem’s ouster from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), but they are still digging their heels in against ending the agency’s weekslong shutdown.

‘It’s not like Kristi Noem was the one who was involved in negotiating anything. She was a corrupt lackey. So, we were dealing with the White House before, and we’re going to continue to deal with the White House at this point,’ House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters during a news conference Thursday.

That point has since been echoed by several other Democratic lawmakers despite Noem’s firing apparently being one of their key demands in exchange for allowing DHS to be fully funded through the remainder of this fiscal year.

Congressional Democrats have maintained a unified blockade of funding for the agency in pursuit of stringent reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Democrats and the White House have been negotiating, but neither side has agreed to compromise terms.

And the shutdown is now guaranteed to drag on for another month, given that the House will be out for a week and the Senate is unable to advance any DHS funding legislation.

‘I’m waiting for them to give us an offer, make us an offering as to what it is that you want us to vote on,’ Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., said. ‘I want to see what the guardrails are before I vote on this funding. … I don’t want us to have masked individuals in my community. I want to see body cameras. I want you to identify yourself when you’re making an arrest.’

Many Democrats aren’t sure that Noem’s chosen replacement, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., would be the answer to the changes they want.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., suggested to Fox News Digital that he was skeptical that any replacement for Noem would be more effective in the discussions given they still have to answer to Trump and his policies.

And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., plans to block Mullin’s confirmation in a bid to extract Democrats’ long-sought reforms to ICE.

‘The rot runs deep,’ Schumer said. ‘If the president wants accountability, he must do more than fire one official — he must end the violence and rein in ICE.’

Republican leaders in the House and Senate both tried again to advance a DHS funding bill that was released as part of wider bipartisan government funding discussions earlier this year.

The bill passed the House with all but four Democrats voting ‘no,’ even hours after Noem’s ouster.

In the Senate, news of Noem’s firing erupted as another push by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to pass a full-year funding bill began. Like their colleagues in the House, Senate Democrats were unfazed by the change and once more blocked the legislation.

When asked if he believed removing Noem from the equation would make a difference, Thune said, ‘It should.’

‘The Democrats have been complaining about that forever,’ Thune said. ‘And, so, this, to me, is a huge development, I would think, in the funding conversation, and hopefully they’ll get more earnest about coming to the table and trying to get a deal. I mean, we should find out soon enough.’

For now, Senate Democrats appear firmly entrenched in their position, even with their colleague Mullin taking the helm of the agency.

‘No, I don’t think it makes any difference,’ Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., told Fox News Digital. ‘They have got to put in the reforms that we need.’

Mullin, who has staunchly opposed the stringent reforms Democrats seek for the agency, said he would meet with Schumer in a bid to earn his and every Senate Democrat’s vote during his forthcoming confirmation process.

‘I’m not going to get into, you know, a tit-for-tat, but if they have real concerns, I’m going to listen to it. I’m going to see if it’s practical,’ Mullin said. ‘But nothing’s going to prevent me from doing my job. I’m going to enforce the policies and the laws that Congress has passed, and we’re going to protect our homeland.’

But not all Democrats were pessimistic.

Asked by Fox News Digital whether Noem’s firing would help advance DHS funding talks, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., said, ‘I think it allows us to reopen the negotiations.’

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger hit back at Secretary of War Pete Hegseth after the Pentagon announced it would cut ties and funding relationships with numerous collegiate institutions over what it described as woke ideologies.

A Pentagon leadership memo initialed ‘PBH’ — the secretary’s full name is Peter Brian Hegseth — sent just before the U.S. bombed Iran and entitled ‘Aligning senior service college opportunities with American values,’ laid out an examination of standing ‘Professional Military Education institutions, [the] bedrock upon which we build lethal warfighters grounded in the founding principles that underpin American

Spanberger fired back after it was reported that the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., would be affected. The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot covered her remarks at a high school in Hampton — about halfway between the two cities.

Spanberger said the move is an ‘outrageous attack at yet another point of pride in Virginia,’ as the memo said the Senior Service College programs there would be ended and that servicemembers would lose support.

 ‘The idea that the Pentagon would pull back from this fellowship program that has been long a fixture at William & Mary is just outrageous,’ she said, according to the paper.

The Pentagon memo said the department will ‘no longer invest in institutions that fail to sharpen our leaders’ warfighting capabilities or that undermine the very values they swore to defend,’ and that more than a dozen schools faced termination.

Spanberger, who formerly worked for the CIA, said the move speaks to the Defense Department’s ‘lack of understanding of the real strength of universities, whether it’s William & Mary or others, in educating the next generation of military leadership,’ according to the paper.

She also cited the fact William & Mary’s current chancellor is himself one of Hegseth’s predecessors.

Robert Gates was former President George H.W. Bush’s director of central intelligence and later served as Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush, remaining in the role into former President Barack Obama’s term.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Pentagon for comment.

In a statement obtained by Hampton Roads’ CBS affiliate, the college administration said it was ‘puzzled and saddened’ by Hegseth’s move, saying that William & Mary is ‘among the country’s most military-friendly institutions’ and also embraces its ROTC program.

While the Williamsburg school may be on the chopping block, the affiliate reported that Regent University in Virginia Beach — founded by Christian evangelist Pat Robertson — may be considered one of the replacement institutions.

In the memo, Harvard, Washington University in St. Louis, MIT, Tufts, Georgetown, George Washington University, Princeton, Yale, Brown and Queen’s University in Canada were listed as schools facing separation.

Colleges being considered as replacements include Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., The Citadel, Virginia Tech, the University of North Carolina, Clemson University and Hillsdale College in Michigan.

A Pakistani man convicted on Friday of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump and other politicians told an FBI agent he thought Iran ‘was responsible’ for the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Asif Merchant, 47, told the FBI agent, Jacqueline Smith, that the incident ‘was the same thing he was sent here to do,’ Smith testified during Merchant’s trial. Merchant told jurors the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sent him on a ‘mission’ to kill U.S. politicians, including by telling him to attend a Republican rally.

Merchant was arrested July 12, 2024, one day prior to the shooting in Butler, where Thomas Crooks fired several shots into a rally crowd, killing one and grazing Trump’s ear. 

The FBI has said repeatedly that it found no evidence that Crooks had co-conspirators or that any foreign actors were involved in the incident.

Merchant, who was convicted by a jury of murder-for-hire and attempt to commit terrorism, testified that Trump was not his only target, telling jurors then-President Joe Biden and former presidential candidate Nikki Haley were also on his list. He claimed that he only took part in the plot because Iran’s IRGC warned it would target his family.

‘I had no other options,’ Merchant said. ‘My family was threatened.’

Merchant now faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. His sentence will be determined at a later hearing.

Merchant was arrested after he was recorded on camera outlining a plot on a napkin to kill a politician with a person who turned out to be an FBI informant. Federal prosecutors showed video during the trial of Merchant speaking to the informant. The prosecutors said Merchant also tried to hire two hit men and pay them $5,000, but the men turned out to be federal agents posing as assassins.

Smith, the FBI agent who met with Merchant after his arrest, said that Merchant never conveyed that he feared for his family. Merchant said he wanted to do intelligence work and be paid for it, Smith said.

The FBI agent also said Merchant was told by an Iranian handler to attend a Republican political rally to scope out security but that Merchant was worried about being identified, and so he watched the rally online instead.

Merchant’s defense team told jurors their client, who has two wives, was a family man and cared deeply about his faith and that he intentionally acted carelessly because he wanted to be caught.

In their closing arguments, defense lawyers said Merchant had his hand forced in the operation, thinking his family would be harmed if he did not cooperate. Additionally, the lawyers cited several instances where they said Merchant’s actions as an intelligence operator were little more than incompetent.

Fox News’ Danielle Cavaliere and Brendan McDonald contributed.

When War Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked recently whether U.S. forces would ever move to secure enriched uranium reportedly stored at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear complex, he declined to say, citing operational security.

The exchange highlighted a question the U.S. and Israel’s air campaign alone cannot answer: even if U.S. strikes degrade Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, who would physically secure the enriched uranium, and how?

Iran is believed to possess a significant stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, near weapons-grade. That material could theoretically be used in multiple nuclear devices if further refined. 

Moving from 60% to weapons-grade 90% enrichment requires additional processing, and weaponization would involve further technical steps. But analysts say the more immediate issue is physical control of the material itself.

‘If the U.S. wants to secure Iran’s nuclear materials, it’s going to require a massive ground operation,’ Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, told Fox News Digital.

Davenport said the highly enriched uranium believed to be stored at Isfahan appears to be deeply buried and contained in relatively mobile canisters. Securing it would likely require locating the full stockpile, accessing underground facilities and safely extracting or downblending the material.

‘It’s not even clear the United States knows where all of the uranium is,’ she said, noting that the mobility of storage containers raises the possibility that some material could be moved or dispersed.

The administration repeatedly has said preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remains a central objective of Operation Epic Fury.

‘Ultimately, this issue of Iran’s nuclear pursuit and their unwillingness through negotiations to stop it is something President Trump has said for a long time needs to be dealt with,’ Hegseth said.

Senior administration officials have argued that Iran sought to build up its ballistic missile arsenal in part to create a deterrent shield — enabling Iran to continue advancing its nuclear program while discouraging outside intervention.

So far, however, the bulk of U.S. strikes have focused on degrading missile launchers, air defenses and other conventional military targets.

Experts note that dismantling missile systems may reduce Iran’s ability to shield a potential nuclear breakout. But physically controlling enriched uranium itself presents a separate and more complex challenge.

Airstrikes versus physical control

Defense officials have acknowledged that degrading nuclear infrastructure from the air is different from safely managing or securing nuclear material. 

Airstrikes can destroy centrifuges, power systems and support buildings. But enriched uranium stored underground may remain intact unless it is physically secured, removed or verifiably downblended.

Striking or extracting nuclear material also carries safety risks that military planners must weigh. 

If storage casks containing uranium hexafluoride gas were compromised, the material could pose chemical toxicity risks to personnel entering the site without proper protective equipment. Analysts say a conventional strike is unlikely to trigger a nuclear detonation, but dispersal of material could create localized hazards and complicate recovery efforts.

Chuck DeVore, a former Reagan-era defense official who worked on nuclear issues, argued that directly targeting the stockpile may not be a priority under current battlefield conditions.

‘You don’t want to release the material into the surrounding areas and cause radioactive contamination,’ DeVore said, adding that deeply buried facilities are difficult to reach from the air. 

DeVore also downplayed the immediacy of a breakout scenario, arguing that further enrichment, weaponization and delivery would be difficult to execute undetected amid sustained U.S. air operations.

Even if Iran were able to further enrich uranium, he said, assembling a deliverable weapon under active military pressure would present significant technical and operational hurdles.

Still, DeVore acknowledged that long-term control of the uranium would ultimately require a political resolution inside Iran and some form of outside oversight.

What would securing it require?

Nonproliferation experts say securing enriched uranium generally involves more than military force. It requires verified accounting of the material, sustained access to storage sites and either removal or downblending to lower enrichment levels suitable for civilian use.

Davenport said internationally monitored downblending would be the safest option if political conditions allow.

‘The IAEA remains the best place to go back into Iran to monitor the sites, to try to track down and account for the enriched uranium,’ she said, describing downblending as a relatively straightforward technical process compared to attempting to extract and transport highly enriched material in a contested environment.

Both pathways — physical seizure or internationally monitored reduction — depend on conditions that do not currently exist.

Administration officials argue that dismantling Iran’s missile network weakens Iran’s ability to shield a nuclear breakout and reduces the immediate threat to U.S. forces and regional allies.

But suppressing missiles and controlling enriched uranium are separate challenges.

Destroying infrastructure can slow or disrupt a program. Physically locating, accounting for and securing nuclear material requires sustained access, reliable intelligence and — ultimately — political conditions that allow it.

For now, the administration maintains that Iran will not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. How the enriched uranium itself would be secured remains a question without a public answer.

The stunning details revealed by Steve Witkoff on his talks with Iran and their boastful remarks about its nuclear program have seemingly fallen on deaf ears at the U.N. nuclear agency.

Days into the U.S.-Israel joint campaign against Iran, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi posted to X stating, ‘There has been no evidence of Iran building a nuclear bomb.’

Fox News Digital asked the IAEA how it could assess the development of a possible nuclear weapon without access to Iran’s facilities but received no response at press time.

Grossi’s post came as the U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff gave details to Fox News’ Sean Hannity earlier this week on his talks with the regime prior to the U.S. and Israel launching their military operation against Tehran.

Witkoff revealed the negotiators said they had an ‘inalienable right’ to enrich uranium. When Witkoff countered that the Trump administration had the ‘inalienable right to stop [them, ]’ he explained that the negotiators said this was only their starting point.

‘They have 10,000, roughly, kilograms of fissionable material that’s broken up into roughly 460 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium, another 1,000 kilograms 20% enriched uranium,’ Witkoff explained. ‘They manufacture their own centrifuges to enrich this material, so there’s almost no stopping them. They have an endless supply of it. The 60% material can be brought to 90% – that’s weapon grade — in roughly one week, maybe 10 days at the outside. The 20% can be brought to weapons grade inside of three to four weeks.’

Witkoff added that during his first meeting with the negotiators, they said ‘with no shame that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60% and they’re aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs, and that was the beginning of this negotiating stance.’

‘They were proud of it. They were proud that they had evaded all sorts of oversight protocols to get to a place where they could deliver 11 nuclear bombs,’ Witkoff said.

Grossi, who is running to become the next United Nations secretary general, did however admit in his post on X that Iran maintains ‘a large stockpile of near-weapons grade enriched uranium’ and said that the Islamic Republic has not allowed inspectors full access to its program. With these facts in mind, he said that the IAEA ‘will not be in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful’ until Iran ‘assists…in resolving the outstanding safeguards issues.’

Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, FDD, told Fox News Digital, No one paid much attention to Rafael Grossi throughout the Biden years when he repeatedly warned publicly that Iran was refusing to cooperate with and providing false statements to the IAEA about ongoing investigations into undeclared facilities, activists and nuclear material.’

The former Trump administration official said, ‘There are some key facts being ignored today. The IAEA board last year found Iran to be in breach of the NPT. To this day, Grossi has confirmed that the IAEA cannot verify the Iranian nuclear program is peaceful.’

He continued, ‘This is not Iraq where we lacked hard public evidence of a nuclear weapons program. Iran had built out nearly every part of its nuclear weapons program in plain sight, with the weaponization work moving forward at undeclared sites controlled by SPND. If the administration had evidence the regime was moving quickly to reconstitute key elements of that program — from advanced centrifuge manufacturing to completion of a new underground enrichment site alongside advancement of delivery vehicle programs – the president was fully justified in enforcing a red line he set after Operation Midnight Hammer.’

Spencer Faragasso, a senior fellow at the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), told Fox News Digital that his organization calculated prior to the June 2025 12 Day War that Iran possessed 440.9 kilograms of 60% rich uranium. With about 24 or 25 kilograms of 90% rich uranium required per weapon, Faragasso said the country possessed the ability to produce 11 weapons in one month.

Faragasso said that there remain questions about whether the Iranians can access their enriched materials, and whether they possess additional centrifuges that may have not been installed in the facilities that were struck.

‘Being able to enrich the uranium up to weapon grade is actually a tall order,’ he said, explaining that it would require a new enrichment site and components and materials that ‘Iran would either need to recover from its destroyed facilities’ or ‘illicitly import them from abroad.’ With a few hundred centrifuges, enough for two or three cascades, Faragasso said the Iranians could have enriched their uranium stores to weapon grade.

‘To be clear, the successes gained from the June war are not permanent and officials from the regime spoke publicly about how they wanted to reconstitute their enrichment program, their nuclear program,’ he said. ‘The more time that goes on, the worse the situation will get. It’s not going to get better, especially regarding the ballistic missile program.’

He said the Iranians had previously expressed the desire to open a fourth enrichment site, which the IAEA stated was at Esfahan. According to Faragasso, there was ‘never confirmation’ of where the site was or how far along construction may have been.

The group is now tracking an Israeli strike on March 3 on Min-Zadayi, a site that Faragasso said ‘was completely unknown’ to them previously. The Israel Defense Forces reported on X that the site was ‘used by a group of nuclear scientists who operated to develop a key component for nuclear weapons.’ 

The State Department referred Fox News Digital to remarks made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the press on Tuesday on Iran’s nuclear program. 

‘This terroristic, radical, cleric-led regime cannot be ever allowed to have nuclear weapons.’ Explaining that the Islamic Republic was ‘willing to slaughter their own people in the streets,’ Rubio directed members of the press to ‘imagine what they would do to us. Imagine what they would do to others. Under President Trump that will never, ever happen,’ he said.