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Big Gaps in Intelligence on Iran's Nuke Program Threaten Push for Quick Deal

(Wall Street Journal) Laurence Norman - President Trump is calling for Iran to "go fast" to secure a new nuclear accord. But for any deal to work, Tehran will have to account for exactly what nuclear program hardware it has produced and stowed away. There are critical gaps in the world's understanding of Iran's nuclear inventory. Implementing a new deal without having a clear inventory of what nuclear material and infrastructure Iran currently has would be extremely risky. Without that baseline, it is next to impossible to ensure that Iran is complying with detailed limits on its nuclear enrichment under a deal. "Iran needs to start cooperating more fully with the IAEA in order to develop confidence that any deal is water-tight," said David Albright, a former weapons inspector who heads the Institute for Science and International Security. A critical gap in IAEA knowledge of Iran's nuclear program is Iran's inventory of centrifuges that spin uranium into higher levels of enrichment. In 2021, Iran stopped handing over to the agency footage and measurements from the cameras installed at its nuclear facilities. Before a deal can be implemented, an IAEA probe into undeclared nuclear material found in Iran must be resolved.
2025-04-20 00:00:00
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