One Month to Act

Last week, Behzad Soltani — deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization — announced that Iran will join the world nuclear club within a month. He further claimed that:

No country would even think about attacking Iran after Iran’s membership in the club.

Iran’s leaders continue to defy the international community’s demands to stop uranium enrichment activity, and are in fact enriching more aggressively than ever before. While heads of state around the globe debate even more sanctions against Iran — none of which have worked in the past — Iran’s clerics speed toward becoming one of the most dangerous regimes on the planet.

They continue to enrich uranium at the Natanz facility (which currently has enough enriched uranium stockpiled for one nuclear bomb), while producing new centrifuges that can enrich uranium six times faster. They are increasing yellowcake production at the Gchine uranium mine. The mine currently has a design capacity of 21 tons of yellowcake per year, about half as much as is needed to produce the 55 pounds of 93% enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb.

They have a nuclear fuel facility in Isfahan capable of producing 10 tons of nuclear fuel annually, and sufficient plutonium for two nuclear weapons a year.

The Arak heavy water plant — built in violation of the nonproliferation treaty — is near its completion, though the West assumed this would not happen until 2015. This facility will be capable of producing significant amounts of bomb-grade plutonium.

As will the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which is set to go live with the help of Russia this coming summer.

At the same time, the Revolutionary Guards are making significant progress with the country’s missile delivery system, concealing their efforts within the space project they have embarked upon with North Korea. The Shahab-3 missile is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, and can currently target Tel Aviv, Riyadh, U.S. bases in Iraq, and the Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.

The Guards’ goal is to be able to deliver a nuclear-tipped missile anywhere in Europe.

Who is to blame for Iran’s growth into a nuclear power? Sadly, it is the West — whose politicians worked tirelessly for three decades to appease the mullahs. This had the effect of buying Iran the time it needed.

Our time is now running out, and it is essential that we acknowledge our failures and take immediate action to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear state.

We must understand that a nuclear-armed Iran will not only harm the Iranian people, but will create instability throughout the world. If the leaders of Iran can currently threaten to disrupt the flow of oil, launch missiles at all U.S. bases in the region, or wipe Israel off the map, they could take the whole world hostage with nuclear weapons.

An Iran with nuclear bombs will make the leaders of Iran untouchable and empower its allies and proxies such as Syria, Hezbollah (already rearmed with thousands of Iranian rockets for a possible war with Israel), Islamic Jihad, and Hamas. Instability will rule the Middle East and have a huge impact on the world economy.

Just recently, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned the White House about the lack of a plan to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions. If this is truly the case, our situation is dire indeed. One can only hope that President Obama is working to lead the world in confronting this grave and growing danger. What we do today could save millions of lives and affect how our children live for decades.

If we fail to act, future generations will never forgive us.