Risks grow after blast hits Iran’s nuclear program
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A mysterious explosion and fire at Iran’s main nuclear facility may have stopped Tehran from building advanced centrifuges, but it likely has not slowed the Islamic Republic in growing its ever-increasing stockpile of low-enriched uranium.
Limiting that stockpile represented one of the main tenets of the nuclear deal that world powers reached with Iran five years ago this week – an accord which now lies in tatters after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from it two years ago.
The larger that stockpile grows, the shorter the socalled “breakout time” becomes – time that Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon if it chooses to do so. And while Tehran insists its atomic program is for peaceful purposes, it has renewed threats to withdraw from a key nonproliferation treaty as the U.S. tries to extend a U.N. arms embargo on Iran due to expire in October.
All this raises the risk of further confrontation in the months ahead.
Iranian officials likely recognized that as they realized the scope of the July 2 blast at the Natanz compound in Iran’s central Isfahan province. They initially downplayed the fire, describing the site as a “shed” even as analysts immediately told The Associated Press that the blast struck Natanz’s new advanced centrifuge assembly facility.
Days later, Iran acknowledged the fire struck that facility and raised the possibility of sabotage at the site, which was earlier targeted by the Stuxnet computer virus. Still, it has been careful not to directly blame the U.S. or Israel, whose officials heavily hinted they had a hand in the fire. A claim of responsibility for the attack only raised suspicions of a foreign influence in the blast.
A direct accusation by Tehran would increase the pressure on Iran’s Shiite theocracy to respond, something it apparently does not yet want to do.