According to the chairman of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and nuclear physicist Martin Venhart, the nuclear risk in the region has not changed in connection with the attack on Iran. From the last public information before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts were expelled, Iran had enriched the uranium needed to produce nuclear weapons to about 60 percent. The enrichment limit required for nuclear warheads is 85 percent. Venhart stated this in an interview with TASR.
“It is already a level from which military enrichment, which starts somewhere from 85 percent, can be achieved with significantly less difficulty. The difficulty, both technical and financial, is not linear. It is very difficult to get from that very small concentration in natural uranium somewhere to the twenty percent, and then the higher and higher you go, the easier and easier it is,” explained Venhart.
Based on the last available data from last year, the physicist estimated that the amount of uranium possessed by Iran could be enough for six to eight nuclear weapons after it has been sufficiently enriched. These would be weak warheads for today – comparable to the bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima during the Second World War.
However, the President of the SAS added that it is not clear what stage of nuclear weapons production Iran was in before the attack and what impact the week-long fighting had. It will become clear only when the inspectors get to the place again from the IAEA. “Iran has not tested a nuclear weapon, we know that clearly, it cannot be hidden,” he added.
At the same time, Venhart does not know whether the French decision to increase the number of nuclear weapons is directly linked to the events in the Middle East, or whether it is a longer-planned move, and therefore coincidental. “France is the only state within the European Union (EU) that possesses nuclear weapons, and it is basically the only state that fulfills the role of nuclear deterrence within the EU,” he stated.
He added that the second on the continent is the United Kingdom. “We are observing the growth of enormous tensions in the world, within geopolitics, and I fear that France’s decision heralds the next round of the arms race. Something similar to what we witnessed during the Cold War,” he concluded.
Israel and the United States launched coordinated attacks on Iranian strategic targets last Saturday (February 28). They also included the residences of the country’s leadership in Tehran. Explosions were also reported in other cities, including Kom, Isfahan and Kermanshah.
In addition to other members of the country’s top leadership, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed immediately during the initial attacks. Iran responded with massive retaliatory missile and drone attacks on targets in Israel and on US military facilities in several Middle Eastern countries. One of the long-discussed problems in the region is the Iranian regime’s attempt to build nuclear weapons.
