How to stop Iran from achieving a nuclear bomb - opinion

• Published date: 30 September 2021
• Author: MOSHE (BOGIE) YA'ALON
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

I am familiar with the Iranian nuclear project and have followed it since my tenure as the head of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman) in the 1990s. There's no doubt it is in an advanced phase, mainly due to the erroneous policy of former US president Donald Trump and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump's decision to unilaterally withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was signed in 2015, was a severe mistake. Unfortunately, this is not just wisdom in retrospect – since I have warned against this problematic decision even before it was taken in 2018. In the case that Trump made the decision with the encouragement (and some say – "push") of Netanyahu, then Israel has responsibility for this mistake as well.

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The US' withdrawal from the JCPOA enabled the Iranian regime to unleash itself from the constraints of the agreement, accelerate its uranium enrichment and accumulate more than 3,000 kg. (6,615 lb.) of enriched uranium at different levels (20% and 60%). Consequently, it got as close as one month from accumulating an amount of enriched material that will enable the production of a nuclear bomb (according to The New York Times, which quoted a respected American think tank). Moreover, this move was made against the clear understanding between the P5+1 countries, as well as the strong coalition that former US president Barack Obama's administration formed.

Let me be clear. The 2015 agreement was undoubtedly worse than what we have aspired to and believed is in reach, in light of the Iranian plights. It was a historical mistake in this sense. But a historical mistake is preferable to entirely unleashing Iran from its constraints. Such a move was understandable, though, if Trump and Netanyahu had prepared an alternative plan in case the Iranians would break (as they did) the agreement. However, reality proved they had not.

Indeed, the Iranian nuclear project is in its most advanced phase since its inception in the 1990s, but I do not accept the notion it reached the point of no return, as Barak argues. Accepting that argument is to accept the idea of an Iranian bomb as an irreversible reality, fait accompli, against which there is nothing do to. Had the Iranian regime ignored the pressure it faced during those years, it likely would have already acquired military nuclear...