With US focus on Gaza, Iran’s nuclear centrifuges keep spinning

THE HILL -Dec 1st 2023

BY ERIC MANDEL, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR

Many believe Iran started the Israel-Hamas war to blow up the Israeli-Saudi normalization process. But there is an equally plausible reason Iran may have done this, which is even more consequential.

The Iranians knew that encouraging a war in Gaza would divert Western attention from their nuclear program, allowing them to accelerate their enrichment of uranium unchallenged.

Wanting at nearly any cost to avoid a regional war, the Biden administration stopped Israel from preemptively striking Israel’s more dangerous adversary on its northern border, Iran’s most vital proxy Hezbollah. Worse, President Biden chose to slow-walk the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) investigation of Iran’s growing nuclear program.

Iran is not only on the cusp of 90 percent nuclear weapons-grade uranium, but it has the means to deliver a weapon anywhere in the region. That was why the Saudis wanted an American defense pact.

According to the IAEA, Iran’s “stonewalling” of nuclear inspectors in Iran is an “extreme and unjustified” act. Yet, incomprehensibly, despite Iran showing no restraint or willingness to cooperate and having misled the IAEA for years, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi merely expressed “his hope that this matter will be resolved promptly.”

Reuters reported that Iran is enriching “more uranium as (the) the Gaza war rages. The United States and its allies have few routes left to rein in Iran’s nuclear work, with…tougher actions against Tehran running the risk of stoking tensions in a region already inflamed by the Gaza war. Iran now has enough uranium enriched…to make three bombs. The stockpile continues to grow.”

Forgotten in the fog of the Israeli war against terror in Gaza is that just two months ago, Biden hailed the release of $6 billion of funds to Iran that had been frozen by sanctions — in essence, a hostage payment for five Americans unlawfully imprisoned by Iran.

Worse, the Biden administration is not only ignoring Iran’s nuclear program but allowing our soldiers to be targeted by Iranian-controlled militias without a significant response to create deterrence. This encourages Iran to take further risks to advance its nuclear program.

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https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4335782-with-us-focus-on-gaza-irans-nuclear-centrifuges-keep-spinning/