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After Iran’s three nuclear development sites had been struck over the weekend by U.S. forces, the news presented the strikes as an overwhelming success. In addressing the nation, President Trump stressed that “now is the time for peace,” and that Iran’s- and the world’s- interests will best be served at the negotiating table. The ball is in Iran’s court, however, and nobody is sure if the Iranians will respond by lashing out at military and civilian targets instead of meekly surrendering its nuclear ambitions. Ben Cohen is a senior analyst and rapid response director at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program, stressing that cautious optimism should be the tone when discussing what happens next.
“I very much hope that we’ll be doing a victory lap,” Cohen told host Larry Mendte, “but there are still some outstanding questions here. I think one of them relates to the enriched uranium that Iran already has… There’s several hundred kilograms of 60% enriched uranium that’s at Isfaham that’s almost weapons-grade; it’s a short skip and a jump to get that up to weapons grade uranium. And then at Fordow, there was talk today that there were trucks seen at the facility a few minutes before the strikes began on Saturday night, and the fear is that they may have been moving nuclear material out.”
Cohen also reminds people that Iran may have taken a beating, but they’re not out yet- and, more importantly, their proxies weren’t even touched: “They still do have hundreds of ballistic missiles… but they may, if the regime feels this is the end and they may collapse, they may decide to go out in a blaze of glory, with martyrdom, and attack lots of wider targets as well.”
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