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President Donald Trump answers a question about potential military action against Iran if it doesn’t agree to a nuclear deal.
JERUSALEM — A leading U.S. research institute devoted to monitoring Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program published an alarming report ahead of this weekend’s U.S.-Iran talks, declaring Tehran’s atomic weapons system has reached an extremely dangerous stage.
The Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Science and International Security titled its shocking new report, “The Iran Threat Geiger Counter: Extreme Danger Grows.”
According to the study, “Since February 2024, the date of its last report, the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program has worsened significantly. Major negative factors include Iran’s greater nuclear weapon capabilities, its shorter time frames to build nuclear weapons, and the growing normalization of internal Iranian discussions favoring building nuclear weapons.
TRUMP VINDICATED AS EXPLOSIVE REPORT CONFIRMS IRAN SUPERVISES HOUTHI ‘POLITICAL AND MILITARY AFFAIRS’
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, left, and President Donald Trump consider direct military engagement. (West Asia News Agency, Reuters | Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
“The possibility of Iran deciding to build nuclear weapons has been increased by the ongoing military conflicts in the Middle East, pitting Iran and its proxy forces against Israel and its allies, a conflict Iran is losing. The volatile security situation is now combined with the perception, if not the reality, that Iran is preparing to build nuclear weapons.”
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said, “We have a little time, but we don’t have much time, because we’re not going to let them have a nuclear weapon. We can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.” He added “I’m not asking for much. I just — I don’t — they can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
When asked about the potential for military action if Iran does not make a deal on their nuclear weapons, Trump said, “Absolutely.”
“If it requires military, we’re going to have military,” the president told reporters at the White House. “Israel will obviously be very much involved in that. They’ll be the leader of that. But nobody leads us. We do what we want to do.”
Trump withdrew from the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—in 2018 because, he argued, that the accord did not stop Tehran’s drive to build a nuclear weapons device.
TRUMP SAYS US WILL DEAL ‘DIRECTLY’ WITH IRAN IN HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON SATURDAY
In this June 6, 2018 frame grab from Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting state-run TV, three versions of domestically-built centrifuges are shown in a live TV program from Natanz, an Iranian uranium enrichment plant, in Iran. (IRIB via AP, File)
A state-controlled Iranian news outlet claimed on Monday that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s alleged fatwa against nuclear weapons does not outlaw their production but bans their use. Fox News Digital sought to obtain a copy of the alleged religious fatwa from Iran, but the regime has so far refused to provide the document. Iran experts have claimed that the fatwa is non-existent.
The Institute for Science and International Security report also warned that “Iran still possesses military capabilities that threaten the region. It has large stockpiles of drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles that it can employ against Israel and its allies. Iran also continues to be a major player in the Ukraine war, backing Russia with vast arms transfers, including drones and missiles.”
The mouthpiece of Iran’s Khamenei—the anti-American paper Kayhan—just urged the assassination of Trump.
Technicians work inside a uranium conversion facility producing unit on March 30, 2005, just outside the city of Isfahan, about 254 miles south of the capital, Tehran, Iran. (Getty Images)
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A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that “Threatening language from the Iranian regime or its mouthpiece against the President, or any American, is unwise.”
Iran’s regime has sought to assassinate Iranian American dissidents on American soil.
Fox News Digital reporter Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
Benjamin Weinthal reports on Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Europe. You can follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal, and email him at benjamin.weinthal@fox.com
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