Fresh fears over nuclear Iran
IRAN needs just five days to enrich uranium to a weapon-ready state, the head of the country's nuclear program claimed on Tuesday.
IRAN needs just five days to enrich uranium to a weapon-ready state, the head of the country’s nuclear program claimed on Tuesday.
With the declaration, Iran seems to be confirming Israeli fears that the deal made between Tehran and the West in 2015 still leaves the door open for a fast breakout to nuclear weapons.
Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said that changes made to its Fordow enrichment facility under the deal were intended all along to enable a return to the 20 per cent enrichment within five days.
He didn’t say that this is the figure needed for weapons, but this is universally understood, and he noted that 20 per cent “carries many messages in technical and professional terms, and the opposite side understands that message”.
Salehi’s warning comes as the US administration has signalled its intention to declare Iran noncompliant, and amid speculation that it may void the deal. It also comes on the heels of recent comments by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, saying that Iran would accelerate its nuclear activities to an advanced level “within hours” if America punished it with sanctions.
Many Israeli analysts are taking Salehi’s warning seriously. “It’s probably a bit of an exaggeration on Iran’s part, but not too much of an exaggeration,” Ze’ev Maghen, a Middle East expert from Bar Ilan University, told The AJN, estimating that Iran could make nuclear weapons very quickly.
Maghen added that Iran is feeling bold and confident. “They feel they have Russia behind them, that America is in disarray, and that they have won the Middle East.
“Despite everyone’s predictions, despite [Sunni] ISIS, Iran has become victorious and there’s a Shiite crescent more than anyone imagined. They are totally dominant.”
Increasing Iranian influence in the region has reportedly been prompting desperate pleas from Israeli defence officials to American officials. According to Israel’s Ynet news site, a high-level Israeli delegation, including Mossad director Yossi Cohen, just told their US counterparts in Washington, “Without a significant change in your position, if you don’t become more involved, tougher and more aggressive, you will leave the Middle East to the Iranians, under Russian auspices.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t respond directly to the Iranian announcement, but a few hours after it was made he spoke about “Iran’s aggression, which has not lessened in the wake of the nuclear agreement” and said that this “presents a problem not only to Israel, but rather to all the nations of the Middle East and the entire world.”
NATHAN JEFFAY
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