Iran is “hellbent on developing a nuclear weapon” and the Western world needs to wake up to this reality, an expert has warned.
Mark Wallace, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, believes Tehran doesn’t feel threatened by the West, accused of lacking the deterrence needed to prevent the regime from sparking World War 3.
Mr Wallace, who is the CEO of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told The Sun: “UANI was founded on a first principle – that the number one state sponsor of terrorism, the most egregious and destabilising actor on the world stage could never get a nuclear weapon. Because the consequence of that would be too great.
“Iran is hellbent on developing a nuclear weapon and it sees that it’s not being checked in any way.”
The expert added: “The assessment of any responsible intelligence community right now is that we have lost the importance and the effectiveness of deterrence because we have no deterrence.”
Mr Wallace’s warning Iran could become a nuclear-powered nation “in merely a blink of an eye” came just weeks after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned Tehran has sped up once again its production of weapons-grade uranium.
In its report released in December, the UN atomic watchdog said that in previous weeks Iran had increased the rate at which it is producing near weapons-grade uranium.
A slowdown in this activity had been noted in mid-2023, but since the end of November facilities in Natanz and Fordow had been spotted by IAEA inspectors bringing back the same level of production Tehran had maintained earlier in the year.
Weapons-grade uranium means raising the level of uranium-235 to 90 percent purity. Iran had previously slowed the rate at which it was enriching uranium to 60 percent purity.
Last year, Iran’s atomic energy chief Mohammad Eslami dismissed the report, saying the country was working “according to the rules”.
The White House National Security Council, however, issued a statement clearly showing concerns about the IAEA report.
A US spokesperson said at the time: “Iran’s nuclear escalation is all the more concerning at a time when Iran-backed proxies continue their dangerous and destabilising activities in the region, including the recent deadly drone attack and other attempted attacks in Iraq and Syria and the Houthi attacks against commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea.”
Concerns about Iran becoming a nuclear power come as the US launched on Friday night retaliatory airstrikes on more than 85 targets of Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force in Syria and Iraq.
The attacks were in response to the killing of three American soldiers on a US base near the Jordan-Syria border last Sunday by a drone attack launched by the Iran-backed Islamic Resistance group.
US President Joe Biden warned: “Let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.”
Ahead of the anticipated airstrikes, the head of the Iranian forces, Maj Gen Hossein Salami, said: “We do not leave any threat unanswered, and we do not look for war, but we are not afraid of it.”
