Rubio: US doubts Iran relocated enriched uranium from Isfahan ahead of nuclear strikes

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the US believes a significant amount of Iran’s stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium was located in the Isfahan facility ahead of Washington’s attack on Iranian nuclear sites, including Isfahan, this morning.

In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rubio says that, while “no one will know for sure for days,” he doubts that Iran’s uranium stockpile was relocated before the operation.

“I doubt they moved it… they can’t move anything right now inside of Iran. I mean, the minute a truck starts driving somewhere, the Israelis have seen it, and they’ve targeted it and taken it out. So our assessment is, we have to assume that that’s a lot of 60% enriched uranium buried deep under the ground there in Isfahan,” he says.

“That really is the key,” adds Rubio, saying Iran should now “bring [the stockpile] out of the ground and turn it over. Multiple countries around the world will take it and down blend it. That’s what they should do with that.”

Iran should agree to have zero enrichment capability, Rubio says further, and to instead pursue “a civil nuclear program like dozens of countries around the world have,” with reactors to create electricity and imported enriched material.

“If that’s what [Iran] wanted, if what they want is a civil, peaceful nuclear program, the route has always been there. The problem is that everything they’re demanding has nothing to do with a peaceful program. They are all the things you would want if you want to retain the option of one day weaponizing the program,” Rubio says.