Haley Says U.S. May Need Special Forces Mission to Neutralize Iran’s Uranium Stockpile

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and 2024 presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Sunday that the United States may ultimately have to deploy special operations forces inside Iran to eliminate its reserves of highly enriched uranium.

Speaking during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, Haley suggested that such a move may be unavoidable given the current situation. “That’s probably what it’s going to come down to. I mean, this is a special force mission. It would take about a week to ten days to get done. They know how to do it. It’s dangerous,” she said.

Haley emphasized that while the operation would carry serious risks, she believes it is necessary to neutralize a key threat posed by Iran. “It’s not something that we can, you know, just sit and think is casual. I think they have to do it. But once they do that, they’re taking away literally one arm of the Iranian regime to where they no longer can threaten any of our allies,” she added.

She also addressed President Donald Trump’s recent decision to impose a naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, indicating that the move is not intended to be a prolonged deployment. Responding to a question about the situation, Haley said, “I think that this is just a matter of continuing to weaken the regime. No, we don‘t want an endless war. This needs to be completed fast. And I think Trump is showing he‘s not going to wait around for talks anymore to do this. Keep in mind, we‘ve got a lot of the naval military already there, so they‘re prepared to do this if they can show that they can de-mine that strait, if they can show that it‘s safe to go through, typically 135 ships would go through the strait a day. Now we‘ve got maybe a handful. You‘ve got a backlog of 400 ships. This is affecting the global economy. If the Trump Administration can manage to get the strait open without Iran having any leverage to hold it hostage, that will be a huge feat, not just for the us, but for the region and the global economy.”

When asked about her political future, Haley ruled out another presidential bid in the next election cycle. She said she “will not” run in 2028 and noted that it is still too early for her to decide whom she might support for the Republican nomination.