Iran has enough fissile material to produce three nuclear bombs, an Israeli official said Monday as the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors convened in Vienna to discuss the West's faltering negotiations with the Islamic republic.
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IAEA Director Rafael Grossi said, "Having a significant quantity [crossing the uranium enrichment threshold] does not mean having a bomb, but … this idea of crossing the line, it's going to happen. They are very close. … It cannot be avoided."
The IAEA's week-long conference is expected to result in a resolution against Iran, which would be the first in two and a half years. However, this will not automatically mean the UN Security Council would act on the agency's recommendation to censure Iran or impose new international sanctions.
The Israeli official stressed that detailed information about the extent of the Iranian enrichment efforts appears in one of two reports that Grossi presented to the IAEA's board.
"The report examined the original nuclear agreement. It shows a disturbing trend of uranium enrichment in large quantities, at high levels of 60% and 20% percent, and in large quantities. The total enriched material is defined as 3-SQ, which means a quantity sufficient for three nuclear bombs," he explained.
It should be noted that the fissile material Iran possesses still requires refining from 60% enrichment level to 90%, which would make it military-grade and suitable for the production of a nuclear bomb. All evidence indicates that Iran has not crossed that final line at this time.
The IAEA has to take action against Iran because there are too many lies Tehran cannot explain away, he added.
"Iran has not responded to questions posed by the IAEA – it can't do it without blatantly lying and without being caught."
According to the Israeli official, the ayatollahs are concerned about the IAEA's expected decision. "You can tell that their anxious. They don't want the Security Council to censure them."
Israel wants the UNSC to confront Iran as means of increasing pressure on it and bringing about a change in its regional conduct, as well as in relation to the nuclear program.
The Israeli official further said that as unlikely as it may seem, Tehran could still agree to revive the nuclear deal.
Tehran "could rejoin the nuclear deal at any given moment – it's ready. It's only the Iranian demand that the US remove the IRGC from its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations is preventing that."
Last week, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he had received assurances from US President Joe Biden that he will not change the IRGC's terrorist designation.
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