US plans to temporarily seize control of Iran's nuclear sites

Washington — The United States is considering temporarily taking control of several Iranian nuclear facilities as one option to address the country’s nuclear program. There is ‘a contingency plan to temporarily occupy certain locations,’ a source familiar with the situation told the American news site Semafor, as reported by RIA Novosti on Sunday. Another option under consideration—developed by United States Central Command (CENTCOM) together with Israel—involves the potential for an American ground operation in Iran to seize and destroy major nuclear locations. ‘They don’t do that very often in the past, if at all, but they have trained for it. They are skilled in it. This is one of the options on the table and perhaps not much reported in the media, but it exists,’ said Jonathan Hackett, a former United States Marine Corps interrogator and a specialist in special operations. Hackett explained that units of that type are trained for missions intended to secure or destroy fissile material, centrifuges, and other equipment related to weapons of mass destruction programs. On February 28, the United States and Israel carried out attacks on several targets in Iran, including in Tehran, causing damage and civilian casualties. Iran then retaliated by attacking Israeli territory and US military facilities in the Middle East region. The US and Israel initially stated that the ‘preemptive’ strikes were necessary to address threats believed to stem from Iran’s nuclear program, but they quickly stated they wanted to see regime change in Iran. Source: Sputnik/RIA Novosti