Former senior officials at the nuclear research center in Dimona believe that Israel and the West "missed the train" and that it is no longer possible to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
However, the officials believe that the emerging agreement is bad, since it will not deny Iran a nuclear capability and on the other hand will inject huge sums into its economy that will allow it to increase its terrorist activities throughout the Middle East.
A nuclear facility in Iran, photo: Reuters
It is important to note that this is not the collective opinion of former KMG officials, but the personal opinion of two of Israel's top nuclear scientists who spoke with "Israel Today". Other sources in the security and intelligence community believe that Iran has not yet reached the point of no return and that it is still possible to prevent from which to obtain an operational nuclear capability.
"The 2015 agreement kept Iran at a relative distance from the status of a nuclear threshold state, but now I believe that not only is it a threshold state, but that Tehran may have already reached full nuclear capability," said one of the former KMG officials.
The nuclear talks between Iran and the powers in Vienna // Photo: Reuters
"The reason for this is that for about four years we have no control or real information about what is happening in the centrifuges that the Iranians returned to operating when they left the agreement - they state that the enrichment carried out in them is to the level of 60%, but there is no way to know if they did not enrich uranium to a level of 90% or higher , which makes it possible to produce fissile material for a bomb.
"In addition, the working assumption in Israel was that the Iranians would deal first with enrichment and only then with the weapons program, but it is not at all certain that there is a basis for this - it is very possible that they have already secretly developed the weapons program, which is a project that is relatively easy to disguise, and if this is the case, then in fact they have already possess nuclear capability.
"It is still possible to stop Iran militarily": the Dimona reactor, photo: Dodo Greenspan
However, the former senior official said that despite these things, he believes that the agreement is bad and is not at all sure that it is right to sign it: "In the past I was very much in favor of the agreement and I believed that Trump's departure from it was a big mistake, but I am no longer sure about the current agreement that is being formed. In the situation described the agreement It will help at most by not having an official declaration of an Iranian nuke, but it will inject the regime with huge sums that can restore the Iranian economy and support Tehran's terrorist activities throughout the Middle East.
"On the other hand, it should be noted that preventing an official Iranian declaration of nuclear capability is also significant, since such a declaration would provide Tehran with a safety net in regards to its terrorist activities, and in addition could trigger a nuclear arms race throughout the Middle East."
Another former KMG senior official told Israel Hayom: "Technically, the Iranians will find a way to get the bomb one way or another - but they won't use it.
What is really dangerous in the emerging agreement is the lack of reference to conventional weapons - Iran's missile program and Hezbollah's precision missile project and all the proxy organizations subordinate to Tehran."
On the other hand, Brigadier General (retd.) Prof. Yaakov Nagel, who served as acting head of the National Assembly and currently serves as a senior research fellow at the Fund for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), believes that it is still possible to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, and that in order to preserve this ability it is forbidden Under no circumstances sign the emerging agreement.
"In my opinion, if an agreement is signed, the ability to deal with the prevention of uranium enrichment by Iran to a military level will be behind us, regardless of the new capabilities that will be opened. On the other hand, if there is no agreement, it will still be possible to deal with the Iranian enrichment militarily," Nagel said in a conversation with "Israel Hayom" .
The nuclear reactor in Bushehr, photo: AP
"Once Iran has enough enriched material at a sufficient level, it will be unstoppable, and it will be able to decide when to develop the weapons system according to its wishes. This will allow it to break into the bomb as soon as it decides to do so, and this is the correct definition of the term 'nuclear threshold state'."
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