The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency has released a report claiming that Iran’s uranium enrichment program is still proceeding despite the Trump administration’s attempts to drag the terror-sponsoring nation to the negotiating table. There’s a catch: As far as the IAEA has determined, Iran has only enriched their uranium to the 60 percent stage; 90 percent is required for a bomb.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a confidential report circulated to member states that Iran had grown its stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium to 408.6 kilograms from 274.8 kilograms in early February, an increase of around 50%. The Wall Street Journal viewed a copy of the report.
That means Iran has enough highly enriched uranium for roughly 10 nuclear weapons, based on IAEA measures of the minimum fissile material required, up from at least six at the time of the last report.
U.S. officials say it could take Iran less than two weeks to convert this highly enriched uranium into enough weapons-grade 90% fissile material for a nuclear weapon.
The obvious question here is this: How do we know they haven’t already done so? Of course, we could cite the lack of a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv – or New York – as evidence. It’s not at all unlikely that, should Iran assemble a weapon, they’d seek to use it.
Iran says its nuclear work is purely peaceful. The U.S. says that Tehran hasn’t decided to build a nuclear bomb but that it would need only a few months to assemble one.
Yes, Iran claims its nuclear work is purely peaceful, which is about as believable as claiming the moon consists of green cheese.
We’ve reported on this and the Trump administration’s attempts to bring Iran to the table over the last few days:
See Also: Trump Warns Israel: ‘Not Appropriate’ to Attack Iran Now
President Trump Proposes a New, Improved Iran Nuke Deal
There’s a lot of tentative language coming out of this IAEA report. To an extent, that’s understandable. It’s impossible to prove a negative, and so it’s not realistic to expect any assurances that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. Iran certainly won’t be forthcoming. They will hide any such efforts, and they’ve got a lot of rough country to hide those efforts in.
The IAEA has said it can’t verify that Iran’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
“The significantly increased production and accumulation of highly enriched uranium by Iran, the only non-nuclear-weapon State to produce such nuclear material, is of serious concern,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in the report.
The UN and the IAEA are right to be concerned, and a sternly worded letter to Iran is sure to follow. If that doesn’t work, maybe another letter, worded even more sternly, will do the trick.
Nothing, of course, the UN can do will prevent Iran from developing a device in secret, perhaps in a hidden facility in the Zagros Mountains. Or buying one from North Korea. The first clue we may get of this is likely to be a mushroom cloud over an Israeli or American city. Israel is more than likely prepared for a direct strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, or at least, the ones that have been identified. While the chances of such an action present a serious risk of escalation, it may be, in the end, the only way to bring the mullah’s nuclear ambitions to a halt.
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