Iran speeding up work on its nukes, two new reports say
Two conflicting reports on Iran’s nuclear weapons program were disclosed this week. Both reports offer important insight into just how Tehran is speeding up work on nuclear weapons.
The first report is from the New York Times which says US Intelligence has new findings on Iran’s weapons program. It goes on to say that the new information was briefed to President Trump’s national security team.
The second report comes from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The NCRI is an anti-regime organization that operates inside Iran.
The US Intelligence briefing says that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon “faster” although the resulting weapon will be “cruder.” US intelligence attaches a caveat to its new information, declaring that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has not made a decision to develop a nuclear weapon.
The New York Times does not explain how Iran could have embarked on a “cruder” weapon even though no decision has been made on going ahead by Iran’s Supreme Leader.
The NCRI paints a different picture. It says that Iran has two important nuclear facilities, one located at Sharad, which doubles as a space launch site, and the other at Semnan, that also has space launch capabilities. Both towns are east of Tehran.
Sharad is kept as a top secret facility ostensibly for launching communications satellites. NCRI says it actually operates as a nuclear weapons development facility, with most of those activities underground. The Sharad launch facility features a new solid fuel Ghaem-100, a two-stage intermediate range ballistic missile. NCRI says that 3 Ghaem-100 missiles have already been launched, and a newer version, Ghaem 105 is being prepared for testing.
In October, 2024 Israel