Only US and China can retrieve enriched uranium from Iran's 'obliterated' nuclear sites, Trump says

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun accused Iran on Friday of trying to use his country as a “bargaining chip” in negotiations with the U.S. 

The remark comes after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps released a statement on Thursday declaring that “no peace in the region will be established” unless Israeli forces withdraw from Lebanese territory, according to Iran International. 

The regime supports Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist group that has been launching attacks toward Israel. 

“It’s not your country, it’s our country,” Aoun told CNN. 

“They are using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their negotiation with US,” he reportedly added. “It’s unacceptable.” 

“You are not trying to help us… the people of Lebanon are paying the price … for the sake of your own interest,” CNN also quoted Aoun as saying, adding that “our interests… do not coincide with your interests.” 

U.S. Central Command said Friday that Adm. Brad Cooper, its commander, met with senior leaders from Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan during a recent trip to the Middle East. 

CENTCOM has played a central role in Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. military campaign against Iran that was launched on Feb. 28. 

In a post on X, CENTCOM also said that Cooper “met with deployed U.S. service members, recognized exceptional performers, and presided over the leadership transition for U.S. Army Central” during his visit to the Middle East. 

The U.S. Treasury Department announced Friday that its Economic Fury campaign against Iran is taking further aim at Iranian gas smuggling and shadow banking networks. 

The Office of Foreign Assets Control said it is “designating a network of individuals, entities, and vessels responsible for shipping hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian-origin liquid petroleum gas (LPG) --intentionally disguised as Omani LPG -- to end users in South and East Asia.” 

“The network used front companies in the United Arab Emirates and China, foreign bank accounts, and Iran’s shadow fleet to move millions of barrels of Iranian LPG while concealing its Iranian origin and evading U.S. sanctions,” the department said. “OFAC is taking this action to expose the complicit actors enabling an economic lifeline for Iran while exploiting commercial infrastructure to obfuscate their actions.” 

The moves are part of Economic Fury, which the Treasury Department is describing as a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran focused on “targeting the regime’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds.” 

“OFAC is also taking action today against Iranian exchange house Mehrdad Geramian Nik and Partners Company and its leadership, who have moved hundreds of millions of dollars of foreign currency on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks,” the Treasury Department added. “Iran’s foreign exchange system relies heavily on selected brokers and rahbar companies, which use overseas shell and front companies to conceal Iranian connections, bypass sanctions, and move funds through accounts typically held outside Iran on behalf of Iranian bank customers.”   

“Iran’s economy is floundering and its military is decimated,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said. “Through Economic Fury, Treasury will continue to sever Iran’s shadow fleet, shadow banking networks, and access to global trade.”  

The Israel Defense Forces said Friday that three of its officers have been injured in southen Lebanon over the last two days. 

The IDF described how in one incident this morning, “a combat officer was seriously injured and another combat officer was lightly injured during an encounter with terrorists in southern Lebanon.” 

“Yesterday, a combat officer was seriously injured as a result of a suspected aerial target strike in southern Lebanon,” it added. 

The IDF said following both incidents, the injured were evacuated for medical treatment at hospitals. 

Israel and the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah continue to clash along the Israel-Lebanon border.

U.S. Central Command said Friday that 129 commercial ships have been redirected during the ongoing blockade of Iranian ports. 

It released a photo showing the USS Tripoli amphibious assault ship transiting the Arabian Sea in support of the blockade, which began in mid-April. 

Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, warned Monday that Iran's armed forces have little patience with the blockade. 

"The Strait of Hormuz is under Iran's management," Rezaei wrote on X. "We will not allow the continuation of the maritime blockade, and the escalation of tensions in Lebanon will not be tolerated either." 

Fox News Digital’s Emma Bussey contributed to this report. 

The Israel Defense Forces said Friday that the Israeli Air Force has struck more than 650 Hezbollah targets over the last week. 

Israeli forces also have eliminated over 125 Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon and have worked “to destroy terrorist infrastructure and eliminate threats to the citizens of the north,” the IDF added. 

The IDF said earlier Friday that it killed Abed Harb, the commander of Hezbollah’s engineering unit, who “was responsible for assembling explosives intended to harm IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon.”

U.S. Central Command pushed back Friday on reports citing Iran’s navy as saying that it fired warning missiles and drones at American warships in the Gulf of Oman. 

"Iranian forces did NOT attack or fire at U.S. Navy warships," CENTCOM said, adding that "doing so would be a gross violation of the ceasefire."

“U.S. forces continue to operate freely in regional waters while fully enforcing the ongoing blockade against Iran,” it continued.

The statement comes after Reuters reported that Iranian media was citing Iran's navy as saying it fired warning missiles and drones at American warships in the Gulf of Oman.

Tensions remain high in the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S. and Iran are trying to negotiate a deal to end the war. 

CENTCOM said as of Thursday, U.S. forces “have redirected 127 commercial vessels, disabled 6 non-compliant ships, and allowed 36 vessels supporting humanitarian aid to pass” as part of the blockade.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said Friday that American forces overnight carried out a “maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding of the sanctioned stateless vessel MT DAVINA” in the Indian Ocean. 

“We will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate,” INDOPACOM wrote on X.  

It shared a video showing American soldiers boarding the ship by helicopter.

“International waters cannot be used as a shield by sanctioned actors. The Department of War will continue to deny illicit actors and their vessels freedom of maneuver in the maritime domain,” INDOPACOM added. 

The maneuver comes as U.S. Central Command continues to enforce a blockade on Iranian ports. 

As the Trump administration weighs diplomacy and military pressure against Iran, a political clock is ticking at home.

Even if the Strait of Hormuz — the global oil choke point largely shuttered since the conflict with Iran due to Iranian attacks — reopened immediately, it could take months for oil flows to return due to logistical bottlenecks involving trapped tankers, swollen inventories and damaged oil infrastructure, according to Kpler oil analyst Matt Smith, pushing normalization of global energy markets closer to the Nov. 3 midterm elections. 

"It's then going to take until the fourth quarter of the year for things to return to normal," Smith said.

The question facing Republicans is whether the economic consequences of the conflict will outlast the conflict itself. While the White House continues to pursue a diplomatic resolution with Iran, strategists and energy analysts say disruptions to global energy markets could linger long after any agreement is reached, leaving voters with months of elevated costs heading into the midterms.

The economic effects are already visible. 

The national average price of regular gasoline stood at $4.241 per gallon Thursday, according to AAA, up from $3.144 a year earlier — an increase of nearly 35%.

Moody's Analytics estimates the conflict has cost American households roughly $100 billion throughout the past three months, or about $750 per household, through higher fuel, transportation and related costs.

The Israel Defense Forces said Friday that it killed Abed Harb, the commander of Hezbollah’s engineering unit. 

“Harb’s unit was responsible for assembling explosives intended to harm IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon,” the IDF said on X. 

It described Harb as a senior commander within the Iran-backed terrorist group in Lebanon, who was “responsible for numerous attacks against IDF soldiers” dating back to 2006.  

“Additionally, a Hezbollah rocket launcher was dismantled,” the IDF also said Friday. 

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would be willing to meet with Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei if ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran produce a deal, saying he would approach any meeting with respect despite any differences.

Trump’s remarks came amid ongoing negotiations with Tehran, where Khamenei appears to have become more involved.

Asked by Fox News' senior White House Correspondent Peter Doocy about meeting the Iranian leader in the United States, Trump said, "I'd be honored to meet him."

“I'd like to see if we make a deal. But if we make a deal, it's possible that I would meet him. I'd be okay with that,” he added before stating that if they did meet, he would be:

“Respectful.”

“Well, I would say I'm not his favorite person,” Trump added.

“But with that being said, he's probably a professional in some circles,” Trump said.

President Trump said Thursday that only the U.S. and China can retrieve enriched uranium from Iran’s buried nuclear sites, adding that the facilities were so badly damaged by strikes that recovering anything would be difficult.

“We attacked their nuclear sites and they were obliterated,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.

“It turned out that, you know, CNN was wrong. They said, ‘Well, maybe they weren’t hit that hard.’ They were hit so hard, nobody knows if you could even get it out,” he added.

Trump went on to argue that only the U.S. and China have the equipment capable of reaching it.

“But the only ones that have the capability of getting it out are us and China,” Trump said.

“We’re the only ones with that kind of equipment that’s powerful enough to go down that deep into a mountain, but that mountain crushed it.”

“That mountain literally collapsed on top of it.”

Referring to assessments by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, he said the agency agreed.

“And now the atomic energy, as you know, has backed us up on that. They think it’s a very, very hard thing to get to, but we’ll get it anyway. But we’re the only ones — and China, I believe, does, too — that have the capability,” he said.

Yesterday's Fox News Digital live blog offers additional coverage of the conflict with Iran.