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Iran conducted tests critical for nuclear weapons development, says UN watchdog
Iran has conducted implosion tests that are critical for the development of a nuclear weapon and likely still possesses the technological know-how and means even though the nuclear weapons programme stands formally suspended, according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). read more
(File) The S-300 missile system is displayed during Iranian defence week, in a street in Tehran on September 24, 2024. Reuters
Iran has conducted implosion tests that are critical for the development of a nuclear weapon, according to the United Nations (UN) nuclear watchdog.
The finding has emerged shortly after the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reported that Iran has ramped up the production of enriched near-weapons grade uranium in recent months.
These developments come at a time when Iran is engaged in talks abouts its nuclear programme with the United States. Even though US President Donald Trump has said described the talks as 'very good', no roadmap or outline of the deal has yet emerged.
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ALSO READ: Trump wants a 'verified nuclear peace agreement' with Iran. But how different it'd be from 2015 deal?
The IAEA has also Iran has ramped up its stockpile of near-weapons grade uranium of 60 per cent from that 133.8 kilogrammes in February to 408.6 kilogrammes in May.
Why does it matter?
The IAEA has found that Iran conducted multiple implosion tests when it openly had a nuclear weapons programme that it started in 1990s and formally shut down in 2003. The implosion tests, which simulate the explosion of a miniature nuclear weapon using conventional explosives and non-nuclear core, are critical for the development of a nuclear weapon and have no civilian applications.
Even though the IAEA found such tests to have been conducted before 2003, the fact that whereabouts of components of Iran's nuclear weapons programme, such as equipment, blueprints, or scientific literature about nuclear weapons, from that period are not known, it is suspected that Iran still possesses the materials as well as the know-how.
This could allow Iran to 'help with a more sudden, rapid push for a breakthrough to a nuclear weapon in 2025', noted Israeli journalist and analyst Yonah Jeremy Bob in an article for The Jerusalem Post.
'The fact that it carried out various explosive tests also suggests that Iran is further along in other skills needed for developing a nuclear bomb, besides just enriching uranium, than many observers may have thought,' Bob further noted.
As per the latest known assessments, Iran can develop a 'crude' nuclear weapon within months once the go-ahead comes from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei as against the previous assessment of 12-18 months.
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The IAEA found that implosion tests were conducted at Lavisan-Shian site and the whereabouts of equipment from the site after 2018 are not known.
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