While Israel bombes the Iranian nuclear sites, concerns about the country’s nuclear program are given in the spotlight. We will come back to all countries with the atomic bomb.
Iranian nuclear installations were affected by significant Israeli strikes During the night of Thursday, 12 to Friday 13 June. Military sites have also been destroyed by the Hebrew state. This military operation, carried out by TSAhal, also targeted residential districts to kill in particular 9 scientists nuclearies of the Iranian program including Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi and Fereydoun Abbasi.
These strikes have a very clear goal, to slow down the production of uranium enriched by Iran. One of the main uranium enrichment installations in the country, Nantzhas been touched many times.
Israel sees the Iranian Islamic Republic as a very serious and even existential threat since it resumed its process of uranium enrichment. The Iranian nuclear program exceeds the rates necessary for civil use and is close to those for the production of an atomic bomb.
Is Iran able to produce a nuclear bomb?
To date, Iran is not in possession of the atomic weapon. However, the country has brought together most of the elements necessary to make a nuclear bomb. Fissile materials, know-how and ballistic vectors are all present on Iranian soil. Iranians have almost 17,000 centrifuge modern, infrastructure to enrich uranium.
Iran has enriched its uranium to 60% and approaches the 90% necessary for a nuclear weapon. This enrichment rate is only useful for military use. The Islamic Republic would have around 9,000 kg of uranium, 45 times the limit set by the2015 Vienna Agreement.
The time of ” breakout », Time required for the production of an atomic bomb, has reduced considerably. Iran could before attacks produce a bomb in a few weeks. The Iranian state had become a threshold state: it did not have the weapon but had the capacities to have it.
Read also: Why are Israel and Iran are at war?
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (TNP)
THE TNP is an international treaty concluded in 1968 and set up in 1970. It was signed and ratified by almost all countries. Only North Korea, India, Israel, Pakistan and South Sudan have not signed the treaty.
He aims at the Non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and is guaranteed by theInternational Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA).
Countries in possession of the atomic bomb
Nuclear proliferation should be used to describe the increase in the number of states with the atomic bomb or those that seek to acquire it.
The 5 Member States (United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China) Permanents of the UN Security Council hold the atomic bomb. These countries are holders of nuclear weapons after the development of a post-second world war nuclear program and before the non-proliferation treaty.
Israel has also been holder of the atomic bomb since 1967. However, the Hebrew state applies a policy of opacity concerning its nuclear program. This opacity is part of its deterrent strategy to protect itself in front of its enemies.
Since the entry into force of the TNP, India and Pakistan carried out nuclear weapons tests in 1998. They did not sign the treaty and therefore have an operational nuclear force. Despite the signature of the TNP, the North Korea declares to withdraw from this treaty in 2003 and carried out almost six nuclear trials the same year.
So we count 9 countries in possession of the atomic bomb.
This nuclear proliferation is at the center of concerns in the Israeli-Iranian conflict. If L‘Iran succeeds in having the atomic bomb, the number of countries holding nuclear weapons would be extended to 10.
