Analysis: Iran threatens nuclear weaponization ambitions

Mahmoud Reza Aghamiri, the president of Iran’s Shahid Beheshti University and one of the Islamic Republic’s prominent nuclear scientists, offered a rare glimpse into Tehran’s calculus behind weaponization.

During an October 16 interview, he stated that the regime “has the capability and capacity to build a nuclear bomb” and added that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s religious declaration [against nuclear weapons] can change.” When asked whether Iranian officials and nuclear scientists had ever considered building a nuclear weapon, he replied, “Certainly,” explaining that the idea had crossed the minds of all scientists.

Aghamiri also said that if the Islamic Republic were ever to pursue a nuclear bomb, “it could do so in the best possible way,” emphasizing that “the most important part of this process is enrichment.” The issue of uranium enrichment and centrifuge capacity has indeed been the central impasse in the five rounds of Tehran–Washington negotiations in May, with both sides defining it as the ultimate red line.

Designated by the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Switzerland for nuclear proliferation, Shahid Beheshti University has researched optimal centrifuge-cascade parameters, electrodialysis for extracting uranium from wastewater, criticality calculations for explosive compression of uranium spheres, and neutron generation, measurement, and transport modeling.

Aghamiri’s comments echo those of other regime officials from the past week, including Ali Shamkhani, the former head of Iran’s Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics. Reflecting on his 1990s tenure as defense minister, Shamkhani said in an October 12 interview that if he could go back in time, he would build a nuclear bomb.

Having survived an Israeli assassination attempt on June 13, Shamkhani—who also previously served as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and now advises the supreme leader on the Expediency Council—plays a key role in US–Iran nuclear talks. He also revealed that he had formed a “circle” of nuclear experts during his tenure as defense minister, most of whom were eliminated during the recent 12-day war with Israel.

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