US President Donald Trump vowed on Thursday that the United States will eventually recover Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium despite comments from Iran that it will not hand over the material.
"We will get it. We don't need it, we don't want it. We'll probably destroy it after we get it, but we're not going to let them have it," Trump told reporters at the White House.
Iran is believed to possess about 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium, which Trump says was buried by US and Israeli airstrikes nearly a year ago.
Retrieving the uranium is part of Trump's central objective in his war on Iran, that Tehran will not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.
"I can think of nothing more important than the fact that we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon," Trump said.
Iran's Supreme Leader has issued a directive that the country's near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources told Reuters.
Trump added that the US does not want tolls on the Strait of Hormuz. "We want it free," said Trump. "We don't want tolls. It's international. It's an international waterway."
Rubio: Hormuz tolling would make Iran deal unfeasible
A diplomatic deal between the US and Iran would be unfeasible if Tehran implemented a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Thursday.
"No one in the world is in favor of the tolling system. It can't happen. It would be unacceptable. It would make a diplomatic deal unfeasible if they were to continue to pursue that. So it's a threat to the world if they were trying to do that, and it's completely illegal," Rubio said.
He also told reporters there had been some progress in talks with Tehran to end the US-Israeli war on Iran, but that Washington was dealing with "a system that itself is a little fractured."
Rubio: There are 'some good signs'
"The president's preference is to do a good deal," said Rubio. "I'm not here to tell you it is going to happen for sure, but I'm here to tell you we are doing everything we can to see if we can get one.
"There's some good signs," Rubio said. "I don't want to be overly optimistic... So, let's see what happens over the next few days."
Rubio added that Trump has "other options" if no deal is reached, saying, "I'm not going to elaborate on what those are, but everybody knows what those are."
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.