Iran Could Have Nuclear Bombs in 3 Years

International Atomic Energy Agency officials say Iran’s newly restarted nuclear program could enable the country to have nuclear weapons within three years.

Iran has spent the past 20 years scouring the world to acquire all the means of production and materials necessary for building nuclear weapons, a senior western intelligence officer told The Daily Telegraph. The big intelligence debate now is not whether Iran can build a bomb, but how long it will take them to build it.

Previous estimates of the minimum time Iraq required for producing enriched uranium had ranged from five to 10 years.

Latest reports suggest that Iran has at least 1,000 tons of uranium known as yellowcake, the oxide of uranium that can be enriched to create weapons-grade uranium. It was acquired from Niger and South Africa in the late 1990s, and when processed could provide enough material for five nuclear bombs.

Iran unsealed its Natanz uranium enrichment facility last week in defiance of the Paris Accord of November 2004, in which Iran promised to suspend nuclear activities.