The International Atomic Energy Agency recently issued an unusually jarring warning, highlighting a development in Iran’s nuclear program. IAEA inspectors confirmed that,
for the first time, Iran has commenced the process of feeding uranium
gas into three cascades of advanced IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges at its
Natanz enrichment facility. These cascades, which consist of multiple
centrifuges working in unison, increase the efficiency of uranium
enrichment by spinning the uranium gas at extremely high speeds,
allowing Iran to enrich it at a much faster rate and significantly
reducing the time required to produce nuclear weapons.
Iran is already enriching uranium
to 84%, alarmingly close to the 90%, “weapons grade” level. Iran
therefore may well be on the brink of acquiring the necessary material
for nuclear bombs.
Iran’s rapid advancement of its nuclear
weapons program comes at a time when the Biden administration not only
seems inactive regarding the threat—it appears to be saving all its
muscle for Israel—but actively supporting the actions of groups that
back terrorism. These efforts include the Taliban in Afghanistan—who
were gifted billions in state-of-the-art U.S. military equipment and a $773 million U.S. embassy—Qatar
with its Al Udeid airbase, Hamas amid its war with Israel and Iran
itself, which has been shooting at U.S. servicemen and using Yemen’s
Houthis to close off shipping in the Red Sea.
By waiving sanctions on Iran, the Biden administration has effectively provided the regime with an estimated $100 billion.
Worse, the Biden administration has turned a blind eye to Tehran’s
destabilizing and aggressive policies, both within the region and
without.
Those policies include Iran’s ongoing
support for terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian
Islamic Jihad and the Houthis. The combination of financial aid and lack
of accountability has bolstered Iran to pursue its nuclear weapons
ambitions with increased fervor, fueling wars in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon,
Yemen, Syria and Iraq; and recently killing three U.S. troops and
wounding at least 186 others, 130 of whom suffered traumatic brain injuries. Iran has also effectively closed off all commercial shipping in the Red Sea, forcing ships to detour around Africa.
Other than that, Iran has clearly “come in from the cold” and is behaving as an ideal neighbor.
Israeli Knesset member Avigdor Liberman, a former defense minister, recently made a disturbing statement during an interview with Israel’s Army Radio. He warned that
Iran is “planning a Holocaust for us in the next two years.” The
declaration underscores the immediacy of the threat. This unsetting
prediction is consistent with the Iranian regime’s longstanding, deeply
ingrained religious prophecy that envisions the complete annihilation of
Israel.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has explicitly articulated his vision for Israel’s destruction in
his 416-page book, “Palestine.” This manifesto serves as a detailed
guide to eliminating Israel, often referred to by the regime as “The
Little Satan,” and vehemently condemns the United States, referred to as
“The Great Satan.” Khamenei’s book and the regime’s rhetoric highlight
the persistent hostility that underpins Iran’s actions toward Israel.
Iran appears to have accelerated its
nuclear program for several reasons. First, the regime sees an
opportunity thanks to the Biden administration’s inaction and perceived
weakness. Second, there is likely a looming fear within the regime that
former President Donald Trump, known for his stringent “maximum pressure
policy” on Iran, might return to power in the upcoming U.S.
presidential election. Third, Iran, with one exception—on April 13,
2024, when for the first time, the regime itself attacked Israel with
more than 300 missiles and drones—has intensified its conflict with Israel by utilizing its proxies.
From the Iranian leadership’s point of
view, possessing nuclear weapons would significantly strengthen their
position and finally secure a “complete victory” over Israel. Last, by
acquiring nuclear weapons, the regime could also equip its
proxies—Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis—with these weapons to use
against Israel, to spare Iran the indignity of being hit back. Using its
proxies as its “human shields” allows Iran’s regime to maintain
plausible deniability, so it can continue hiding behind them while
escalating the real threat to Israel, which is Iran itself.
The Biden administration urgently needs to
take decisive action to curb Iran’s aggressive nuclear advancements.
The United States needs to stop its current practice of waiving
sanctions on Iran and start reimposing—and enforcing—severe sanctions on
the country’s oil and gas industry. Washington also needs to cut off
the financial flow to the regime by imposing secondary sanctions: any
country that does business with Iran may not do business with the United
States. Such measures are critical to limiting Iran’s resources and
hindering its ability to further its nuclear program.
If Iran persists in its uranium enrichment
activities, the United States might consider targeting the training
bases of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, its oil refineries or
some of the many other possible targets, to delay or dismantle its nuclear capabilities.
U.S. failure to act will only lead (and
soon) to a nuclear-armed Iran, significantly upending global stability
and providing a potential vacuum for America’s adversaries to fill.
Originally published by the Gatestone Institute.
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