An ex-US ambassador and nuclear weapons expert has cautioned that Iran is already a nuclear weapons state and has enough uranium to produce “one, if not two” bombs.
‘The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has established that Iran possesses 60% of enriched uranium, enough for at least one, if not two bombs,’ former Washington official Robert Joseph told MailOnline.
Since years, we have warned that “they are close to this breakout point and we really need to talk with them.” They are present.
Speaking before the ‘Free Iran’ summit in Albania, which was hastily postponed due to a terror threat, was the former US Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.
Prior to the conference this weekend, the US Department of State urged representatives, including Joseph, to stay home.
James Jones, a former NATO general, former national security adviser John Bolton, and senator Joe Lieberman were all scheduled to attend.
In Tirana, Joseph declared, “I am the last person who would advise the use of force, either there or with North Korea.” But rather to aid the opposition in toppling this government.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is said to have given up his nuclear weapons programme thanks in part to Joseph, who served as the lead negotiator to Libya in 2003.
He has been outspoken in his criticism of the past administration of Barack Obama, including its role in the removal of Gaddafi’s government in 2011 and the 2015 nuclear agreement, which the administration signed to keep Iran from building a nuclear weaponry.
An exiled Iranian opposition organisation that is currently residing in the Ashraf 3 camp near Tirana was hosting the meeting, and some former US officials were supporting the organisers as a viable alternative to the Islamic Republic that currently rules Iran.
One day before the event, the US Embassy in Albania issued a warning to US citizens, asking them to avoid the summit and to “be aware of your surroundings” because “the US government is aware of a potential threat targeting the Free Iran World Summit to be held near Durres, Albania on July 23-24, 2022.”
The UN nuclear monitor, the IAEA, reported in May that Iran’s “breakout time”—the amount of time needed for the government to hypothetically create nuclear weapons—had decreased to two weeks.
But a month later, according to the Institute for Science and International Security, the breakout time had reached zero.
MP Matthew Offord, who was supposed to attend the event, stated, “We hear that they are regularly testing ballistic missiles, and they are aiming to accumulate enough uranium that they are able to create a weapon.”
The longer range of the ballistic missiles is a problem, he continued. It wouldn’t be nearby, say as far as Israel; it may go much beyond than that.
The MP claimed that since his friend and fellow MP David Amess was killed by an Islamist extremist last year, he has been “taking prophylactic measures.”
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the exiled opposition that migrated to Tirana after thousands of its members were executed during the 2013–2017 War in Iraq, has previously been the target of Iranian agents.
Former Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, who was also planned to participate, stated that the summit’s cancellation due to a credible threat to delegates was just the second time in his tenure and the first time involved the NCRI.
An Iranian spy was detained by French police in 2018 while attempting to smuggle explosives and a detonator to an NCRI gathering in Paris.
The court in Antwerp, Belgium, sentenced Assadollah Assadi, 49, who served at the Iranian embassy in Vienna, to 20 years in prison.
This was the first time an Iranian official has been charged with such a crime in the EU since the 1979 revolution.
However, a pact to swap the convicted terrorist with a Belgian national taken captive in Iran was adopted by the Belgian parliament on Thursday, despite heavy objections from the Iranian opposition.
“We must support Iran in this crucial conflict. The Iranian people must understand that the world sees this dictatorship for what it is.
Added Baird. “I firmly favour regime change, not from the outside with military force, but we need to back the National Council because they are probably the biggest and most potent resistance to the regime.”
According to the IAEA, Iran now has 95 pounds of uranium that has been enriched to a level of 60 percent, a more than 300 percent increase from the previous three months.
The Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons programme was first made public by NCRI in 2005, when it showed international organisations that the Iranian government had worked to produce a neutron initiator using Polonium 210 and Beryllium, giving it the ability to enrich uranium and eventually develop nuclear weapons.