The last few weeks have not been good for Iran.
The country has been at war with Israel, and then the United States came in and blew up its nuclear facilities.
Israel recently conducted yet another massive strike, one which Iran finally acknowledged killed at least 71 people.
Almost immediately after the United States conducted its strike against Iran, a “low confidence” report on the strike was released regarding the efficacy of the strike.
Now, I am not an intelligence expert by any means, but I have been doing this long enough to know that there is simply no way to get an accurate report that close in time after a strike of this nature.
The report stated that at two of the sites, while the entrances were caved in, the sites themselves were still believed to be functional.
The Trump administration immediately pushed back, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth calling the report "completely false."
One of the questions being asked after the strike was whether Iran managed to get the uranium out before the strike, and if the country would continue to pursue a nuclear weapon.
When reports surfaced that the uranium may have been moved, I stated at the time that there was no reason to panic. I believed this because Iran no longer had the rest of the pieces in place to build a bomb.
Having said that, while the threat is reduced, I believe the Trump administration should not be so cavalier in dismissing this possibility, and Jonathan Ruhe, director of foreign policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), seems to agree, stating, "The threat now is certainly much reduced."
He added, "But the threat from here on out is going to be much more difficult to detect because Iran could try to rebuild covertly. They don’t need much space or time to enrich 60% to 90%. And the IAEA has said for years that Iran likely retains some secret capability."
While all of this was taking place, Israel had also hit Iran, bombing the notorious home of political dissidents, Evin Prison.
The video of the bombing was surreal, with a pinpoint strike on the gate of the facility. Iran has now confirmed that at least 71 people were killed in the strike.
Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), discussed the strike this weekend, as well as the strike against Iran’s facilities, and he, too, was not so cavalier to dismiss the idea of uranium gone missing, stating, "It is clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage, first of all. And secondly, Iran has the capacities there, industrial and technological capacities. So if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.”
Trump really needs to check his ego at the door on this one. I believe that the administration should have stated it had no intelligence that the uranium was moved, but if that information does come to light, the United States will work to locate and secure the uranium so that Iran cannot use it. And if Iran decides to build a new facility, we will take it out again. That would have covered all bases while also allowing for a victory lap.