U.S. and Israeli officials will hold a meeting at the White House on Thursday to discuss Iran’s nuclear program after intelligence agencies discovered concerning information about Iran’s capabilities, Axios reported Tuesday.
U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies reportedly uncovered information about a computer modeling program Iran has acquired that could be used to assist in developing nuclear weapons. The purpose of the program remains unclear, with officials reportedly split on whether it is innocuous or it represents further nuclear ambition in Iran.
“For years now the intelligence community has assessed Iran is not actively working to build a nuclear weapon, that it might be building out the assembly line for fissile material but that we had no indication of active weaponization work. If true, this would upend that assessment and suggest Iran has a shorter runway to a bomb than previously reported,” said Richard Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based nonpartisan national security think tank.
Goldberg, who worked as director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction for the White House National Security Council from 2019 to 2020, criticized President Biden’s administration for rolling back the “maximum pressure” policies of former President Trump. He argues that Iran is “building the assembly line right in front of us” for a bomb.
Trump’s administration had focused on limiting Iran’s ability to produce the weapons-grade uranium needed for a bomb. Goldberg says Iran has all but secured that ability under the Biden administration. Nevertheless, the weaponization process takes time.
“The administration pegged that to be around 18 months while the Israelis said a year or less. But if weaponization work is already going on, if the computer modeling is already being perfected, that timeline may be far shorter,” Goldberg said.
