Even after a U.S. strike devastated their nuclear program last month, Iran is doubling down on continuing to pursue nuclear enrichment, declaring Monday that it “cannot give up” the program due to “national pride.” President Trump responded by stating that the U.S. would repeat a strike on Tehran to thwart a future nuclear threat “if necessary.”
During a Fox News interview on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated, “We cannot give up our enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride. Our enrichment is so dear to us.”
Araghchi went on to acknowledge that the Islamist regime’s nuclear facilities had been “seriously damaged” by the U.S. strike and that the country’s enrichment operations are currently at a standstill. The admission bolstered a recent American intelligence assessment that found that Iran’s primary enrichment site buried deep underneath a mountain at Fordo had been severely damaged and likely destroyed, an appraisal that had been in doubt after initial reports estimated that the damage may not have been extensive.
In response to Araghchi’s admission, President Trump posted on Truth Social Monday, “Of course they are, just like I said, and we will do it again, if necessary!”
The U.S. strikes came after experts warned that the Islamist regime was days away from producing a nuclear warhead, with some saying that Tehran’s enrichment facilities would likely be able to churn out multiple weapons within weeks. Experts now estimate that it would take the regime several years to rebuild the program. The New York Times has noted that any future efforts that Iran would make to rebuild their enrichment facilities will likely be swiftly detected by the U.S. and Israel. With the regime’s air defenses crippled, it would be difficult to fend off another attack. Last week, an Israeli official stated that the country was ready to “mow the lawn” at the heavily damaged sites, suggesting that any efforts to rebuild could be quickly destroyed again.
Still, experts like former Trump national security adviser John Bolton say that Iran’s objective to obtain a nuclear weapon remains unchanged.
“They’ve obviously suffered significant damage to both the nuclear program and their ballistic missile program,” he reiterated during “This Week on Capitol Hill” over the weekend. “And I think they’ve shown their real sentiments in the past week or 10 days by effectively making it impossible for international inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to stay in Iran. The regime said, ‘We can’t guarantee your safety.’ And the IAEA took the hint and said they were going to withdraw their personnel. … This regime has never modified its radical theology that came into power back in 1979. It’s still run by that same ideology, which is why it’s a threat to the U.S., to Israel, to Arab governments in the region.”
If Iran fails to reach an agreement with the U.S. and Europe over its nuclear program by the end of August, increased international sanctions and arms restrictions against the regime are likely to be put in place. Bolton, who formerly served as ambassador to the United Nations under George W. Bush, explained how the sanctions could be carried out.
“Because the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is now coming to an end … there’s a provision in there that allows the U.N. Security Council to reimpose international sanctions,” he detailed. “[T]he U.S. … has reimposed those sanctions, but the Europeans have not. So this is a threat really from the Europeans that if the Iranians don’t get serious, they will reimpose sanctions, which I think would be an entirely good thing, because that would show even more pressure, more unity among Western nations against Iran’s effort to get nuclear weapons. But I don’t think it will dissuade the Iranians. I think the benefit to the United States is to finally bring the Europeans over to a stronger position against this very threatening regime in Tehran.”
Bolton went on to urge the Trump administration to more stringently enforce sanctions against Iran in order to continue the squeeze on the regime without having to resort to military action.
“Economic sanctions and tariffs and a variety of other things the U.S. could do are a form of warfare — economic warfare, not kinetic warfare,” he observed. “But I’d have to say our record of enforcing sanctions across many administrations for decades now has not been as effective as it could be. I think if we were to have stricter enforcement, the sanctions would bite harder and would therefore be more effective. And the whole point of using economic measures first is to try and avoid having to go to military action. So stronger sanctions, better enforced, I think, are very much in America’s interest, and we ought to be looking at how to use the sanctions more effectively than we have.”
AUTHOR
Dan Hart
Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.
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