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Source: https://www.thefp.com/p/how-close-is-iran-nuclear-bomb
How Close Is Iran to the Bomb?
(Free Press) Jay Solomon - Recent activities at a secretive office inside Tehran's Ministry of Defense are stoking fears that Iran is far closer to building a nuclear bomb. Documents reveal how Iran's parliament is significantly expanding funding for the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND). SPND's mandate is to produce advanced and nonconventional weapons with no civilian oversight. It reports directly to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ali Akbar Salehi, former head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told Iranian state television in February that his country already has all the necessary components to build a bomb. Starting in 2014, the U.S. has sanctioned a spiderweb of SPND officials, subsidiaries, and front companies in a bid to drain the organization's supply lines and resources. The expansion of SPND coincides with a shift in the U.S. intelligence community's view of Iran's nuclear program. A July report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence details how it can no longer verify that Iran's nuclear pursuits are strictly for civilian purposes.