Yossi Cohen: Iran not close to getting a nuclear bomb

• Author: LAHAV HARKOV
• Published date: 13 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

"I think that Iran, to this day, is not even close to acquiring a nuclear weapon... This is due to longstanding efforts by some forces in the world," he said in response to a question by Jerusalem Post intelligence reporter Yonah Jeremy Bob, which included references to Israeli covert actions in the Islamic Republic.

Iran's position is also weaker in that there is "less foreign support for what [it is] doing than in the past," he said.

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If Iran develops a nuclear weapon, Israel must be able to stop it on its own, Cohen said.

Asked if that would be possible without bunker-buster bombs, he responded: "We have to develop capabilities to allow us to be absolutely independent, doing what Israel has done twice before" – bombing nuclear reactors in Syria and Iraq.

"They should not sleep quietly in Iran," he added.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, is a misnomer, Cohen said. "In the JCPOA, the C stands for comprehensive," he said. "It isn't comprehensive; it has to be comprehensive."

The deal must be "completely refurbished – not only in one different subject, but completely" – to be effective, Cohen said. "If it isn't, Iran will continue to have the capabilities it has today or even higher."

Cohen spoke about how the Mossad, under his leadership, smuggled an entire nuclear archive from Iran into Israel in 2018. That archive referred to three previously unknown nuclear sites in the Islamic Republic.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi "should take these under consideration when allowing...