Iran is on the cusp of producing enough fissile material to power several nuclear weapons, according to the United Nations.
A confidential U.N. report leaked on Wednesday indicates that Iran is enriching uranium, the key component in a nuclear weapon, up to 60 percent purity at its Fordow nuclear site, according to Reuters. The technological know-how needed to enrich uranium to these levels demonstrates that Iran has surpassed the threshold required for bomb-making.
Iran is believed to have altered nuclear centrifuges stored at the Fordow site, allowing the country to enrich uranium to these high levels of purity. The news comes less than a week after a suspected Israeli drone strike hit another Iranian military facility in Isfahan, believed to be a weapons depot. Iran has vowed to take revenge for the attacks, setting the stage for a burgeoning war between Tehran and Israel. The news also further complicates the Biden administration's efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, which stalled as the Iranian government cracks down on anti-regime protests across the country.
"The attack on Isfahan will not go unanswered," Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, said on Wednesday.
Iranian military leaders also said on Wednesday that they are increasing defenses aimed at countering future drone strikes, like the one Israel is believed to have conducted.
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