Following a US military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, a 400 kg stockpile of enriched uranium—enough to possibly produce up to 10 nuclear weapons—went missing, according to US Vice President JD Vance. Considered a strategic asset by Tehran, the 60 per cent enriched uranium was thought to be a crucial negotiating chip for Iran in any future nuclear talks with Washington. The material would need to be further enriched to about 90 per cent in order to be weaponised.
Following a significant US operation last week in which six GBU-37 "bunker buster" bombs were dropped on three heavily fortified Iranian nuclear facilities—Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan—the stockpile vanished. Even though all three locations were severely damaged, satellite photos taken following the strikes showed that the uranium had disappeared.
Iran may have moved the uranium and some of the equipment to a hidden underground location just a few days prior to the attack, according to reports. Israeli officials have reaffirmed this assertion in remarks to international media. A convoy of 16 trucks was seen parked outside the Fordow nuclear site, which is carved into a mountain and is generally thought to be impervious to conventional missile attacks, according to satellite imagery taken before the US airstrikes.
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Israel requested US assistance due to the convoy's presence, which led to the use of precision-guided GBU-37 munitions and B-2 'Spirit' bombers. The trucks had already left the scene when the strike was carried out early on Sunday morning, raising serious questions about what was taken and where. According to Israeli and American intelligence, the uranium was moved to a different underground storage facility close to Iran's ancient capital, Isfahan. The specifics of the relocation are still unknown, though, and confirmation is still pending.
A week prior to Israel's initial attacks, the sites were last examined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world's nuclear watchdog. The urgency of starting inspections again was emphasised by IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi in a speech to the UN Security Council last week. He warned that continued military escalation undermines the agency's vital work and reduces the likelihood of a diplomatic solution to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, saying, "It is essential."
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Is Iran building a nuclear bomb?
Iran has continuously insisted that its nuclear programme is only being used for peaceful, civilian purposes. Israel, however, has long maintained that Tehran is covertly working on nuclear weapons. Israeli officials assert that Iran is approaching a 'point of no return,' citing the country's enrichment programme's rapid advancements.
Iran threatened to leave the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which is the foundation of the global system designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, in the wake of the airstrikes. "No one can tell us what to do," said Deputy Foreign Minister Takht Ravanchi, dismissing any idea that Tehran would completely scrap its programme.
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Iran may not have put together a weapon, but it does have all the parts to do so, a senior US official said. Confusion was increased when Tulsi Gabbard, the US Director of National Intelligence, changed her previous testimony before Congress. She claimed that Iran was not developing nuclear weapons months ago. However, Gabbard said on Saturday that Iran could produce nuclear weapons "within weeks" after pressure from President Donald Trump, who called her previous claim "wrong."
At first, President Trump had given Iran two weeks to accept a new nuclear safeguard deal. He did, however, approve the strikes after intelligence reports verified that without American military assistance, Israel would not be able to destroy Iran's nuclear infrastructure. Trump said to international media just hours before the American attack, "We're not involved in it (but) it's possible we could." He called on Israel and Iran to settle their differences amicably "before it is too late."
Trump declared that Iran's nuclear programme had been "completely and totally obliterated" following the operation, pointing to the use of six bunker busters and a volley of decoy Tomahawk missiles. He commended the seven B-2 bombers that flew radio silent and continuously from an airbase in Missouri for the 37-hour mission.
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