Iranian Threat

I feel it’s important to address one major factor in the Middle East that’s capable of transforming into a game changer for the region, and that is the nuclear ambitions of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The UN has said that Iran is distending their nuclear infrastructure to a much larger capacity, that it would prove a great challenge for the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to examine suspected nuclear activity. With Republican guards verbal threats towards Israel, and American military targets in the area, we must be vigilant. Iran supports terrorist organizations with financial, training, and equipment, there is no basis to believe or trust they aren’t developing nuclear weapons.

Capacity

The amount of LEU (low-enriched uranium) stockpile has increased from 500kg to 1,339 in the past six months. At this moment there are nearly 5,000 centrifuges operating towards uranium enrichment. David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security has said Iran now accumulated enough LEU to convert into high-enriched uranium (HEU) sufficient for one atom bomb. Eventually there are a planned total of 55,000 centrifuges that will increase capacity to larger amounts. There is also a separate project on working on more sophisticated centrifuges capable of enriching uranium 2-3 as fast as the P1 models. Missiles capable of delivering a nuclear bomb are readily available for any reason Iran deems necessary, Dennis Blair Director of National Intelligence has said, “Development of medium-range ballistic missiles, inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons, has continued unabated.

Threat

Once you cross the HEU threshold, there is nothing more difficult to accomplish towards the development of nuclear weapons. Back in September of 2007 Iran threatened to fire long-range missiles towards American military targets in the middle-east. The Shahab-3 rocket is capable of penetrating a wide area of the middle-east, including a beacon of hope, Dubai which could be an Iranian target. The reaction of a nuclear Iran would start a middle-eastern arms race in the whole region, giving terrorist more opportunities to infiltrate government projects for destructive purposes.

Giving Iran the capability to be a nuclear power is a price we can’t afford. We have vested interest in the area, and all would be in jeopardy should we not stop this common international threat. Iran has nothing to lose from proclaiming they nuclear might, the time to act is before they have the capability to have this resource.