Washington DC - President Donald Trump is considering a military mission in Iran to seize some 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium, according to a new report.

The Wall Street Journal on Sunday quoted US officials as saying that Trump is currently assessing how dangerous this would be for the ground troops required for the operation, which would likely last several days or longer.

Before Israel and the US carried out airstrikes on Iran in June last year, bombing three nuclear facilities in the process, the country possessed more than 1,000 pounds of uranium with a purity of 60%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). More than 90% is required for the construction of nuclear weapons.

The highly enriched uranium is likely to be located mainly in underground tunnels and storage facilities at the Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites, both of which were bombed by the US and Israel last June, according to IAEA Director Rafael Grossi.

As a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is entitled to pursue limited enrichment in line with a right to develop nuclear energy. The Islamic Republic has repeatedly renounced any intention to build nuclear weapons.

Trump encouraged his advisers to press Iran to agree to hand over the material as a condition for ending the war, the Wall Street Journal quoted an unnamed source as saying.

On Sunday evening, Trump told reporters that Iran must comply with US demands, otherwise “they're not gonna have a country."

For days there have been reports of a possible ground offensive by the US military in Iran. Although Pakistan is attempting to mediate, Washington and Tehran have not yet entered into direct negotiations to end the conflict.