Israel Warns As Iran Could Have Nuclear Bomb Within Weeks (Worthy News In-Depth)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Revelations that Iran may have a nuclear bomb within weeks overshadowed Hanukkah feasts in Israel, but Israel’s spy chief warned Iran it would not be allowed to become a nuclear power.
“Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, not in the coming years, not ever. That’s my commitment, that’s the commitment of the Mossad”, Israel’s spy agency said Mossad Chief David Barnea.
“We’re ready, and we’ll act with our colleagues in the defense establishment to do what is needed to distance the threat to the State of Israel and thwart it in any way,” he added.
Shortly before his remarks, Israeli media reported that Mossad destroyed the centrifuge hall at the Iranian Natanz nuclear facility in April. It reportedly did so by secretly recruiting a team of Iranian nuclear scientists.
Last year Mossad was linked to the assassination of Iran’s then nuclear program chief Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, and Barnea suggested more strikes are planned.
Barnea’s remarks at a Mossad agent’s awarding ceremony attended by Israel’s president and prime minister came after a chilling report by a leading nuclear scientist on Iran.
FOUR NUCLEAR BOMBS?
In the report, David Albright – a world-renowned and trusted nuclear physicist – concluded that Iran might have four nuclear weapons within a year.
The report he published with two of his colleagues concluded that Iran has enough weapons-grade uranium “for a single nuclear weapon in as little as three weeks.”
In just two months more, Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to produce a second weapon, the report stated.
“After about 3.5 months, [Iran] would have enough for a third weapon. The additional production of enough [weapons grade uranium] WGU for a fourth weapon would be slower,” Albright wrote. But that would still take “six months, reflecting the depletion of Iran’s pre-existing stocks of enriched uranium.”
Iran, he noted, “is effectively breaking out slowly by producing 60 percent enriched uranium and continuing to accumulate it.”
The revelations undermined diplomatic negotiations with Tehran in Vienna, Austria, with sources saying the meetings were faltering.
NUCLEAR TALKS CONTINUE
Six world powers and Tehran held four days of indirect talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Under the accord, Iran agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities, not to build nuclear weapons, and allow international inspectors in return for the lifting of economic sanctions.
The agreement was signed between Iran and the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
The JCPOA limited the purity to which Iran can enrich uranium to 3.67 percent, far below the roughly 90 percent weapons-grade, or the 20 percent Iran reached before the deal.
Iran is now enriching to various levels, the highest being around 60 percent, effectively violating the agreement, according to officials and experts familiar with the issue.
Then U.S. President Donald J. Trump exited the JCPOA agreement in 2018, but U.S. President Joe Biden wants to return to the deal.
OPPOSING JCPOA DEAL
Israel opposes the JCPOA with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, asking U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to end the talks. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said Bennett expressed his opposition to lifting American sanctions, saying it would mean a massive flow of cash into Iran.
Blinken suggested to reporters that the United Still doesn’t end the talks saying there was still time for Iran to “engage meaningfully” in the Vienna negotiations and return to the deal.
He said his phone call with Bennett was “good and detailed,” adding: “We have exactly the same strategic objectives: We are both determined to ensure that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon.”
Israel made clear it doesn’t share the Biden administration’s intention to continue negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran’s Islamic leadership publicly supports the destruction of Israel, adding to concerns in the Jewish state about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“Iran strives for regional hegemony, operates the same terrorists that we’re tackling every day worldwide, and continuously threatens the stability of the Middle East,” Barnea noted.
Iran maintains its nuclear program is for “peaceful purposes.”
The standoff comes as Israel celebrates Hanukkah or the ‘Festival of Lights’, recalling the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple in a violent period.
If you are interested in articles produced by Worthy News, please check out our FREE sydication service available to churches or online Christian ministries. To find out more, visit Worthy Plugins.