President Donald Trump said the US will eventually recover Iran’s stockpile of highly ‌enriched uranium, which Washington believes is destined for a nuclear weapon, though Tehran says it is intended purely for peaceful purposes.

“We will get it. We don’t need it, we don’t want it. We’ll probably destroy it after we get it, but we’re not going to let them have it,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has, however, issued a directive that the uranium should not be sent abroad, ​two senior Iranian sources told Reuters before Trump’s comments.

Trump also railed against Tehran’s intentions to charge fees for use of the Strait of Hormuz off its coast, where ​a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas passed through before the war.

“We want it open, we want it free. We don’t ⁠want tolls,” he said. “It’s an international waterway.”