Iran Regime Close to Getting Nuclear Bomb, But What's the Holdup?

Iran has moved dangerously close to enriching weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb, but the regime has not yet crossed the critical threshold of declaring it has built an atomic weapon.

"It’s an open question as to whether Khamenei wants to die as the father of the Shiite atomic bomb or as the one who kept the Islamic Republic on the nuclear path without provoking a war or pulling the trigger," Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told American media.

Aside from the technological impediments to the construction of a modern nuclear weapon, Iran’s regime has been confronted with deterrence from Israel and the United States over the years, including Stuxnet computer worm sabotage of the regime’s nuclear fuel production system.

"I think Iran's leadership to date has calculated the costs of doing so would outweigh the benefits at this juncture — mainly a destructive attack which targets its entire nuclear infrastructure," Jason Brodsky, policy director of the U.S.-based United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI), told American media.

"Iran has not crossed the threshold into building a nuclear weapon because the supreme leader has not decided to weaponize the program," said Joel Rubin, a former deputy assistant secretary of state who served in the Obama administration.

Rubin said it was clear that Tehran was "Still open to pursuing a diplomatic path as it knows that if it crosses into weapons-grade nuclear arsenals, which it is capable of doing, the nation would be further isolated internationally — even by its allies. It would trigger a regional nuclear arms race, and Tehran would never get out from under the sanctions pressure it currently is experiencing," he said. (FN / VFI News)

“You, Lord, will keep the needy safe and will protect us forever from the wicked.” - Psalm 12:7