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Iran Has Begun Preliminary Work on Building a Nuclear Warhead
(Wall Street Journal) Mark Dubowitz interviewed by Elliot Kaufman - Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, says he has tried for years "to make the case that the Islamic Republic is a threat to the region, its own people and the U.S., and that it needs to be dealt with, not wished away." After Iran's April 13 attack, "At least temporarily - very temporarily - Israel got out of the penalty box and Iran has gone in." Iran keeps breaking through red lines on its nuclear program "and things that would've been intolerable 10 years ago are tolerable today." The West once thought Iranian enrichment of uranium was intolerable. "Now, they're enriching uranium to 60%, which is a stone's throw away from weapons-grade." Of Israel's airstrike in response, Dubowitz said, "'Our air defenses worked, your expensive S-300 didn't. You targeted our air force base, we hit your air force base,' using much less to do much more damage," and near a nuclear facility. Adding insult to injury, the strike came on Mr. Khamenei's 85th birthday. Moreover, the strike "reaffirms to the Saudis that Israel is the only country with the will and capabilities to take on Iran." "I have been led to believe that Iran's weaponization activities have begun. After a long pause during which Iran's nuclear enrichment and missile program advanced, Iran is now taking preliminary steps that will help build a warhead. That is headline news, because it contradicts the longtime U.S. intelligence consensus, and it suggests the Iranians are even closer to a deliverable nuclear weapon than we had thought." "I don't get a straight answer in Washington, but I got a straight answer in Israel: 'We have evidence, we have intelligence. They have begun preliminary work on the weapon.'"