House intel chair: Iran could be nuclear state by year’s end
Aug 20, 2024 21:50:05 GMT -5
Post by shalom on Aug 20, 2024 21:50:05 GMT -5
House intel chair: Iran could be nuclear state by year’s end
(August 20, 2024 / JNS)
U.S. House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said on Sunday that the Iranians “might declare themselves a nuclear weapons state by the end of this year.”
He blamed the Biden administration’s policies for the rapid acceleration of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, which he claimed had reversed gains former president Donald Trump made during his term in the White House.
“Donald Trump, with the maximum pressure campaign on Iran, put the most pressure on Iran that they have had in any administration. Both economically, militarily, they were on the ropes,” Turner told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan.
“In their processes they had slowed. What we see now with this administration, they might declare themselves a nuclear weapons state by the end of this year, with the news reports have been out stating that there is a possibility,” he said.
Brennan then asked if Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had changed Turner’s conclusion on this.
“There is a possibility, with the advances that have been made under the Biden administration’s policy, that Iran could, reports are out, that Iran could declare itself a nuclear weapon state by the end of the year,” said Turner.
“But you would not have had that under the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign,” he continued. “The flexibility and freedom that [Iran has] had under the Biden administration has given them the ability to both try to influence our elections, actively try to undertake a plot to assassinate Donald Trump and to continue their nuclear weapons and their nuclear enrichment programs.”
Tehran is advancing its secret nuclear program, bringing the Islamic Republic closer to building atomic bombs, Iran International reported on Aug. 14.
Three independent sources in Iran told the London-based opposition media outlet that the regime is moving forward with its nuclear weapons program “by restructuring the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), retaining Mohammad Eslami as the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and resuming tests to produce nuclear bomb detonators.”
The Biden administration privately warned Tehran in June about its research and development activities, Axios reported on July 17, citing three Israeli and U.S. officials.
According to the report, both Israeli and American officials have detected suspicious activities by Iranian scientists in recent months.
“Officials fear they could be part of a covert Iranian effort to use the period around the U.S. presidential election to make progress toward nuclear weaponization,” the article states.
American and Israeli officials met in Washington in mid-July, discussing “mutual coordination on a series of measures to ensure that Iran can never acquire a nuclear weapon,” the White House said.
A Western diplomat told Iran International that the Islamic Republic’s suspicious nuclear activities have raised concerns in Washington, Jerusalem and European capitals.
After the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July, the head of Hamas’s political bureau in Tehran said that Iran’s deterrence policy, which relies heavily on its regional terrorist proxies, has lost its effectiveness. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other high-ranking government officials are aware of this, according to the report.
The report suggests that the blows to its proxies might lead Tehran to consider nuclear weapons as a method of deterrence, quoting Iranian lawmaker Mohammad-Reza Sabbaghian from an open session of parliament on the day that new President Masoud Pezeshkian presented his ministerial picks.
“What logic or law dictates that arrogant powers should have nuclear weapons, but Iran should not?” Sabbaghian asked rhetorically.
“We call on the Supreme National Security Council to review the new circumstances and recommend to the supreme leader that, considering dynamic Islamic jurisprudence, the path be cleared for the development of nuclear weapons.”
link
(August 20, 2024 / JNS)
U.S. House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said on Sunday that the Iranians “might declare themselves a nuclear weapons state by the end of this year.”
He blamed the Biden administration’s policies for the rapid acceleration of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, which he claimed had reversed gains former president Donald Trump made during his term in the White House.
“Donald Trump, with the maximum pressure campaign on Iran, put the most pressure on Iran that they have had in any administration. Both economically, militarily, they were on the ropes,” Turner told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan.
“In their processes they had slowed. What we see now with this administration, they might declare themselves a nuclear weapons state by the end of this year, with the news reports have been out stating that there is a possibility,” he said.
Brennan then asked if Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had changed Turner’s conclusion on this.
“There is a possibility, with the advances that have been made under the Biden administration’s policy, that Iran could, reports are out, that Iran could declare itself a nuclear weapon state by the end of the year,” said Turner.
“But you would not have had that under the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign,” he continued. “The flexibility and freedom that [Iran has] had under the Biden administration has given them the ability to both try to influence our elections, actively try to undertake a plot to assassinate Donald Trump and to continue their nuclear weapons and their nuclear enrichment programs.”
Tehran is advancing its secret nuclear program, bringing the Islamic Republic closer to building atomic bombs, Iran International reported on Aug. 14.
Three independent sources in Iran told the London-based opposition media outlet that the regime is moving forward with its nuclear weapons program “by restructuring the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), retaining Mohammad Eslami as the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and resuming tests to produce nuclear bomb detonators.”
The Biden administration privately warned Tehran in June about its research and development activities, Axios reported on July 17, citing three Israeli and U.S. officials.
According to the report, both Israeli and American officials have detected suspicious activities by Iranian scientists in recent months.
“Officials fear they could be part of a covert Iranian effort to use the period around the U.S. presidential election to make progress toward nuclear weaponization,” the article states.
American and Israeli officials met in Washington in mid-July, discussing “mutual coordination on a series of measures to ensure that Iran can never acquire a nuclear weapon,” the White House said.
A Western diplomat told Iran International that the Islamic Republic’s suspicious nuclear activities have raised concerns in Washington, Jerusalem and European capitals.
After the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July, the head of Hamas’s political bureau in Tehran said that Iran’s deterrence policy, which relies heavily on its regional terrorist proxies, has lost its effectiveness. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other high-ranking government officials are aware of this, according to the report.
The report suggests that the blows to its proxies might lead Tehran to consider nuclear weapons as a method of deterrence, quoting Iranian lawmaker Mohammad-Reza Sabbaghian from an open session of parliament on the day that new President Masoud Pezeshkian presented his ministerial picks.
“What logic or law dictates that arrogant powers should have nuclear weapons, but Iran should not?” Sabbaghian asked rhetorically.
“We call on the Supreme National Security Council to review the new circumstances and recommend to the supreme leader that, considering dynamic Islamic jurisprudence, the path be cleared for the development of nuclear weapons.”
link
