by According to a senior Israeli official, Israel has determined that some of Iran’s underground stockpile of enriched uranium that is nearly bomb-grade escaped Israeli and American attacks last month and might be available to Iranian nuclear engineers.
According to the senior official, Israel started preparing for military action against Iran late last year after observing what he called a rush to develop a weapon as part of a covert Iranian operation. Due to the sensitive nature of the material, the official spoke on condition of anonymity.
According to the official, the Israeli Air Force murdered Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group in Lebanon, shortly after Israeli intelligence detected the nuclear weapons operation. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, was encouraged by that remark to get ready for an attack, with or without assistance from the United States.
U.S. intelligence officials claimed they had not seen any indication that Iran was attempting to weaponize its stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium in the days leading up to Israel’s mid-June attack on Iran and President Trump’s subsequent decision to join the operation. Two of Iran’s most important enrichment installations were hit by 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs from the United States, while a third site where the fuel could be transformed into weapons was targeted by a volley of submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles.
The Israeli official claimed that the United States had been fully informed of the evidence acquired regarding the covert program, which he did not elaborate on.
However, despite describing a fledgling attempt to investigate quicker, cruder methods of producing a bomb, U.S. officials stated in January that they did not think Iran was yet racing for one.Additionally, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, testified before Congress in March that she did not see any indication that the Iranians had made the decision to develop a bomb. In June, intelligence officials reaffirmed this stance.
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