Pentagon: Iran can make fissile material for a nuke in 12 days. Israel: We are ready for Iran’s final nuclear steps

Pentagon: Iran can make fissile material for a nuke in 12 days. Israel: We are ready for Iran’s final nuclear steps

DEBKA

It would now take Iran just 12 days to produce a bomb’s worth of missile material, US undersecretary for Policy Colin Khal revealed on Tuesday, Feb. 28.  IDF Operations head Maj. Gen. Oded Basyuk also said: “We are nearing the critical closing stages of the Iranian nuclear issue.”
Khal told Congress’ armed services committee that, five years ago, Iran would have needed 12 months, not days, to reach the same point. “Its progress since we left the JCPOA has been remarkable,” he said, although this does not necessarily mean that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has made a final decision to actually build the bomb.

Earlier this week, CIA William Burns offered a similar assessment, after the International Atomic Energy Agency last week said its monitors had detected that Iran now had the capability of enriching uranium to close to 84pc. On Tuesday, the IAEA said the capability had actually reached 83.7 percent, which is on the verge of making weapons-grade uranium.Behrouz Kamalvandi, member of Iran’s nuclear commission, claimed that the 83.7pc purity was an anomaly due to an accumulation of unforeseen incidents, not the result of the regime’s intention. IAEA officials were highly skeptical of this claim.

In his report, Gen. Basyuk disclosed that Israeli operations had succeeded in preventing Tehran from establishing Hizballah No. 2 in Syria. The armed drones intended for attacking Israel are now flying over Ukraine as well as striking merchant shippin gin the Gulf, he said. “We are coming close to the final critical stages of the Iranian nuclear issue. We have made the relevant preparations and if need be, we’ll activate them.”