The whole conspiracy around the downed airman https://www.afr.com/world/middle-east/a-ruse-to-snatch-urani... only adds to it.
I guess it is a combination of established media not doing well financially and lacking in quality and expertise and the general rise of authoritarianism and death of (mainstream) critical journalism. Free press has been severely limited these days.
Realtime updates of this quantity did not exist for any of the Gulf war, Kosovo War, Iraq war.
They were trying to take Uranium out?
the narrative exists for Iranian propaganda purposes because if you look at what happened (US forces set up a forward-operating-base deep within Iranian territory, held it for hours, found the airman, then left without casualties) it's very embarrassing for the Iranians.
Iran could have easily scattered the material over multiple locations well before the US/Israel hit the site.
Having said that, I find it incomprehensible that if Iran had the material, they didn't finish the task of building a working weapon. If you have resources the US wants to steal, and you have no nukes, you get attacked.
I agree that Iran had ample time to disperse and hide any material. Any operation with just 2 C130s with of equipment (about 6 humvees worth) is far to inadequate to find and remove it.
My SUV can easily carry 500kgs, and it's not even a big vehicle.
It's speculated this material is buried under a mountain, but we have satellite evidence of Iran digging and transporting something out, so nobody knows for sure. Iran also has nuclear facilities that were never inspected by the IAEA. It's possible there's undocumented nuclear material there.
And only removing the 60% grade material without removing the rest is completely silly. Iran has enough centrifuges to convert its 20% grade material into weapons grade in 1-2 months. And has enough 5% material to convert into weapons grade in 8 months to a year. Removing only the 500kgs of 60% grade material would not solve the issue, Iran would be back to where it was in a few months, and doing so would only kick the can down the road.
That's why all (several tons) of the nuclear material needs to be found and removed.
I'm no fan of the vile Iranian regime but this doesn't fly.
All countries should abandon nuclear weapons. Since that's never going to happen, who is the US to make this demand?
Fact is any resource rich country without nukes will attract the thieving USAians. After Venezuela it was Iran, and after Iran it will be Nigeria.
Also, read why Iran and Saudi Arabia have hostile relations (it boils down to Shia Iran is angry of Sunni management of Makkah, as Shia Iran wants to control Makkah). And why Iran had friendly relations with Israel for decades until 1979.
In terms Iranian resources, the US does not care at all. Iranian is a minor oil producer, and they are not relevant on the global stage. They produces less oil than China for heavens sake.
The US presense in the middle east exists to counteract against Iranian aggression. Read a history book to understand why.