Kolkata: US Vice President JD Vance has reportedly told ABC, an American broadcaster that a 400 kg stockpile of uranium which can help in the creation of 10 nuclear weapons is unaccounted for. The US, before the ceasefire announcement, got directly involved in the Iran-Israel War by bombing three Iranian nuclear facilities.
According to reports, the uranium stockpile that is unaccounted for is enriched to 60 per cent. If Iran wants to use it as a nuclear weapon, then it needs to be enriched to about 90 per cent. Iran may have reportedly moved the stockpile along with some equipment to a secret location before the US strike, something Israeli officials talking to The New York Times has claimed.
Ahead of the US strike in Iran, satellite images showed 16 trucks outside the Fordow nuclear plant. Notably, it is one of the most important nuclear facilities in Iran and is built deep under a mountain. The Fordow nuclear plant is hailed as impregnable which reportedly led the Israelis to ask the US to drop the ‘bunker busters’ on the nuclear facilities.
While satellite images showed the facility was significantly damaged, the trucks were missing, and there is no clarity over why were the trucks used and what did it move. As per Rafael Grossi, the chief of the global nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear facility was last inspected a week before Israel’s first attack on Iran.
Last week, Grossi told the UN Security Council that the nuclear watchdog must resume inspections to ensure Iran has not diverted the stockpile. Also, he warned that wars delay this “indispensable work” and bring down the chances of diplomatically preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
US B-2 ‘Spirit’ bombers dropped the ‘bunker busters’ on the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities. Following the strikes, Donald Trump declared Iran’s nuclear programme had been “completely and obliterated”. He lauded the operation and said that the attack had destroyed any chance of Iran building a nuclear weapon.
