Israeli officials told journalists Wednesday that intelligence indicated Iran could have enriched uranium to 90%, or weapons grade, within two weeks if it had decided to do so, before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes over the weekend.
They said, however, that Iran’s weaponization group was “still far from producing a classic nuclear bomb.”
In terms of risk management, the officials said there was a clear decision that they had to act when they did. Iran’s nuclear capacity was not totally wiped out, and they “still maintained certain capabilities,” according to Israel.
President Trump on Tuesday defended his decision to launch the war with Iran, saying there would have been a nuclear war without the intervention, and that Iran “would have taken out many countries.”
Mr. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Monday that Iranian officials claimed during recent negotiations to have enough enriched uranium to make 11 nuclear bombs, before the U.S. and Israel launched their attack
Witkoff told Fox News that Iran’s negotiators had told him before the strikes that the country had about 460 kilograms of uranium at 60% enrichment, echoing reports from the U.N.’s IAEA nuclear watchdog, but adding that it could have been enriched to weapons-grade within a week to 10 days.
Iran insisted right up until the war began that it would not seek to build a nuclear weapon, and the IAEA chief said 10 days before strikes started that the agency had seen no evidence of Iran working toward developing such a capability.
Iran is now preparing for three to four weeks of war and is preserving its weapons stockpiles, the Israeli officials said, adding that, “Israel did not drag the U.S. into the war.”
