SAEDNEWS: Donald Trump’s attempts to secure Iran’s enriched uranium have reached a dead end. However, he has managed to obtain a small portion of uranium from Venezuela.
According to the political desk of Saed News, The Guardian has reported that Donald Trump has finally succeeded in removing a country’s stockpile of enriched uranium—but that country is not Iran; it is Venezuela.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced on Friday that “thanks to the decisive leadership of President Trump,” 13.5 kilograms of enriched uranium had been removed from an old research reactor in Venezuela.
The department described the joint operation by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela as “a victory for the U.S., Venezuela, and the world.”
The uranium shipment was extracted from an aging research reactor located about 15 kilometers from Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated that this “complex and sensitive” operation involved transporting the material via land and sea routes from South America to North America.
The final destination of the enriched uranium has been identified as a U.S. Department of Energy facility in South Carolina.
Details of the Transfer Operation
The IAEA confirmed that the uranium was transferred through a “complex and sensitive operation” involving both land and maritime routes from South America to North America. The shipment, removed from a site 15 kilometers outside Caracas, has now been delivered to a Department of Energy complex in South Carolina.
Brandon Williams, head of U.S. nuclear security, described the move as a sign of a “rebuilt and renewed Venezuela.”
This development comes as the White House has been rebuilding its relationship with its longtime adversaries in Caracas since Trump’s controversial January 3 order to detain Nicolás Maduro.
Trump has now recognized Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president, and—while warning her of consequences worse than Maduro’s if she fails to cooperate—has paved the way for U.S. energy and mining companies to enter Venezuela.
The Shadow of Failure in Iran
Over the past two months, multiple reports have indicated that Trump had hoped to replicate the Venezuela model in Iran.
The Atlantic reported hours earlier that Trump believed initiating a war in Iran would lead to the rapid collapse of the government in Tehran.
One of Trump’s primary objectives in launching the February conflict with Iran was to force Tehran to surrender approximately 408 kilograms of highly enriched uranium.
So far, all U.S. military and diplomatic efforts to achieve this goal have failed.
The Guardian suggests that by highlighting the Caracas operation, Trump is attempting to overshadow the nuclear stalemate in the Iran case.
