President Donald Trump’s second term in office presents a historic chance to reverse the Biden administration’s failed Iran policies and prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, a new report from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) argues.
The report, titled “Detecting and Halting an Iranian Weaponization Effort,” argues that the president should immediately muster the full weight of the U.S. national security establishment to confront this urgent threat.
“The president made the right call in re-imposing maximum pressure. Now, he needs to ensure Iran can’t dash to nuclear weapons, drawing on the short timeline and technical know-how it possesses,” Andrea Stricker, author of the FDD report, told Fox News Digital.
Iran’s domestically built centrifuges are displayed in an exhibition of the country’s nuclear achievements in Tehran, Iran, on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, during his first term in 2018 and reapplied harsh economic sanctions. The Biden administration had initially looked at re-engaging with Iran on the nuclear issue upon taking office, but on-again-off-again talks went nowhere, complicated by Iran’s domestic politics and Iran’s role in supporting its terror groups in the region.
FDD visual showing the steps Iran must take to construct nuclear weapons. (FDD)
Stricker says the clerical regime has an additional incentive to seek nuclear weapons to secure its hold on power with a more confrontational administration in Washington. It could also sprint for the bomb to bolster its offensive and defensive capabilities to deter further Israeli strikes against the regime itself, she warned.
In addition to the military threat, the report recommends the U.S. and Israel should cooperate on intelligence-related operations to detect and disrupt Iranian weaponization. It also suggests that the U.S. and Israel should work toward identifying key Iranian officials and nuclear scientists and to cultivate them as human intelligence sources.
It additionally encourages the U.S. and other nations to urgently mobilize the International Atomic Energy Agency to strengthen inspections of weaponization activities in Iran.
A November 2024 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said that Iran has enough fissile material to produce over a dozen nuclear weapons if it continues to enrich uranium.
