This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog.
Nobody seems to know what happened to Iran’s enormous stockpile of enriched uranium. Until we learn the fate of that uranium, I think that it is premature for anyone to be declaring victory. Of course, now that the ceasefire appears to be holding, everyone is declaring victory. Israel is declaring victory, Iran is declaring victory, and President Trump is declaring victory. But what is the truth?
The fate of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is of utmost importance. If that stockpile remains intact, it will be a major victory for the Iranians. But if it has been destroyed, it will be a major victory for the United States and Israel.
Unfortunately, the truth is that what happened to that stockpile is currently unclear…
Still unknown is what will happen to Iran’s enriched uranium, the key ingredient for making a nuclear bomb that Iran says it removed from its nuclear sites before the United States attacked.
“Significant nuclear materials remain unaccounted for,” said Kelsey Davenport, the Arms Control Association’s director for nonproliferation policy.
Vice-President J.D. Vance has publicly stated that he thinks that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was buried by the U.S. airstrikes, and he is dismissing concerns that the stockpile could have been moved prior to those airstrikes…
“The goal was to bury the uranium, and I do think the uranium is buried,” Vance said. Of the US, he said the goal of the bombing “was to eliminate the enrichment and eliminate their ability to convert that enriched fuel into a nuclear weapon. We don’t want that 60%-enriched uranium to become 90% enriched uranium. That’s the real concern”.
But Vance insisted it was not a concern that Iran could have moved it and claimed the bombing represented “mission success” because he said Iran no longer had the capacity to turn the stockpile into weapons-grade uranium. “And that was really the goal here,” he said.
But there are some experts that believe that Iran was able to move at least some of the enriched uranium before the airstrikes took place.
Former UN nuclear weapons inspector David Albright is one of those experts…
The former UN nuclear weapons inspector David Albright told CNN on Monday there are centrifuges that are “unaccounted for” that must still be dealt with to consider the US mission successful.
“I think that part of the mission has been accomplished,” he said. “Stocks of enriched uranium are one of them. I wish those stocks were buried, but our understanding is that some of them were taken away by Iran, and we don’t know where they are.”
Albright added that the question of the remaining, unaccounted-for centrifuges meant that “this problem isn’t over yet, but it is a manageable problem. Partly because turning that enriched uranium into weapons-grade uranium is not going to be a slow – a fast process”.
And there appears to be evidence that backs up the claim that the Iranians were moving enriched uranium.
A series of satellite images shows 16 trucks lined up outside the underground facility at Fordow just days before that facility was bombed…
There are reports Iran may have moved the stockpile, as well as some equipment, days before the attack to a secret location, a claim repeated by Israeli officials to The New York Times.
Satellite images from before the US’ strike showed a line of 16 trucks outside the Fordow nuclear plant, which is built inside a mountain and is considered impervious to most missile attacks, prompting Israel to ask the US to deploy its B-2 ‘Spirit’ bombers and the GBU-37 ‘bunker busters’ bombs early Sunday.
Of course, the enriched uranium is just one part of the equation.
We also need to know if Iran’s underground centrifuges were destroyed by the U.S. airstrikes.
The Trump administration is claiming that they were, but an intelligence assessment that was leaked to CNN claims that they were not…
The US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, according to an early US intelligence assessment that was described by four people briefed on it.
The assessment, which has not been previously reported, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm. It is based on a battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command in the aftermath of the US strikes, one of the sources said.
Why is there such disagreement between the intelligence assessment and what we are being told publicly?
According to this assessment, Iran’s nuclear program has been set back “maybe a few months”…
Two of the people familiar with the assessment said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed. One of the people said the centrifuges are largely “intact.”
“So the (DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,” this person added.
The White House acknowledged the existence of the assessment but said they disagreed with it.
On top of everything else, we are also being told that Iran’s “secret nuclear facilities” were not hit by any airstrikes and “remain operational”…
US officials believe Iran also maintains secret nuclear facilities that were not targeted in the strike and remain operational, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
If this assessment is anywhere even close to accurate, we have a major problem on our hands.
The lunatics that run Iran have now been given all the motivation that they need to produce nuclear weapons.
After everything that has just happened, they know that they will not be able to defeat the U.S. and Israel using conventional weapons.
So it would be a shock if they didn’t rush to build nukes.
The entire purpose of negotiations was to get Iran to give up their nuclear program.
Well, that is definitely not going to happen now.
Alarmingly, a top Iranian official has already declared that Iran’s nuclear program is not going to be stopped…
On Tuesday the head of Iran’s nuclear energy program vowed that the country will continue its nuclear program uninterrupted, despite the Trump-ordered weekend heavy bombings of three key nuclear and uranium enrichment sites.
AEOI (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran) head Mohammad Eslami said on state television that “plans for restarting [the facilities] have been prepared in advance” and that measures ensuring continued production are in place.
“Despite the evil conspiracies of its enemies,” the AEOI said in the statement, “this organization will not allow the path of development of this national industry to be stopped.”
On the other side, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pledging that Iran will be attacked again if it attempts to fully restore their nuclear program…
“If someone, if someone in Iran tries to restore that program, we will act with the same determination, the same power, to cut off any such attempt,” says Netanyahu.
“I repeat – Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”
It appears that this story is far from over.
And that is not a good thing for any of us.
The negotiations with Iran were supposed to result in some sort of a resolution.
They didn’t.
This war was supposed to result in some sort of resolution.
That didn’t happen either.
So what comes next?
Michael’s new book, entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next,” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book, entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next,” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com, including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books, you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream, and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
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