Over the weekend, the United States launched a military attack aimed at Iran’s nuclear program, after failed attempts at negotiations with the Persian country.
US President Donald Trump classified the operation as “successful” on Saturday (21) and highlighted the next day that damage to Iranian nuclear facilities were “monumental”.
Washington attacked the nuclear centers of Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow, in a “Midnight Hammer” operation (midnight hammer) and that the Pentagon described as the biggest bombardment with B-2 aircraft in history.
Trump’s statements about the damage caused to Iran’s nuclear program were endorsed by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA), which did not yet have access to the facilities, but did a preliminary analysis of “significant” damage, especially in Fordow, one of the most important uranium enrichment plants in the country.
Despite the pronouncements, so far it was not possible to confirm all real damage caused to Tehran and its nuclear program, which began in 1974, under the leadership of the Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.
Iran is estimated to have over 400 kg of 60% purity enriched uranium in its stock, walking to reach the 90% needed for military use. According to AEEA, this would be enough, if enriched even more, to produce at least nine nuclear weapons.
The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, explained that the US does not plan new military operations on Iranian soil and invited the Ayatollah regime, led by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, sitting to negotiate an agreement that puts an end to its uranium enrichment.
On Sunday (22), Iran’s atomic energy organization (AEOI) stated that US attacks will not interrupt nuclear activities in the country. “The organization guarantees to the great nation of Iran that, despite the evil conspiracy of its enemies, we will not let the path of development of this national industry, resulting from the blood of nuclear martyrs, is interrupted,” says the note.
Tehran confirmed Washington’s military operations, but said he was able to remove essential equipment from his nuclear program from the facilities before the bombing.
According to analysts interviewed by The New York Timesthe decades of investment and the construction of a veneration by the nuclear program in Iranian culture signal that no Iranian leader would be willing to give up it anytime soon.
According to the experts, the Tehran nuclear project, sold as a program for civil purposes, contributes very little to national energy needs, but serves very well as a means of strategic dissuasion through uranium enrichment, generating strong tension with Israel and the United States, seen as enemy countries by the Aiatolah regime.
Ray Takeyh, expert in Iran of the Foreign Council Council, told the Times that the defense of the Iranian nuclear program is also a form of political power. “In a way, the calculations of the Islamic Republic were the same as the Shah: an expression of power and prestige.” Therefore, despite the American and Israeli bombings, the supreme leader there Khamenei or any other who may replace him should not give up his most powerful dissuasive weapon.
AEAE warns that conflict in the Middle East threatens to break global agreement of nuclear non -proliferation
The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA), Rafael Grossi, warned on Monday (23) that the global agreement of nuclear non-proliferation may be by a wire due to the Middle East conflict to curb the Iranian nuclear program.
“The weight of this conflict threatens to collapse the global regime of nuclear non -proliferation, but there is still a way to diplomacy,” said the Argentine diplomat at the beginning of an emergency meeting of the AIEA governor board in Vienna.
Iran took advantage of recent US attacks on the country over the weekend to inform you that Parliament is preparing a bill to suspend the country’s collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA), considering that it “does not comply with its obligations” and has become a “political tool.”
“Parliament is elaborating a law to stop cooperation with the United Nations nuclear agency, the president of Parliament, Mohamad Baqer Qalibaf, said in a speech on Monday.
On June 12, the AIEA Council adopted a resolution against Iran for not fulfilling its nuclear obligations. The resolution, presented by Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, and supported by 19 countries, considered that Iran’s lack of cooperation was a breach of its obligations with the body.
