Hmmmm ,,, Thanks Trump administration, for starting a war with Iran costing billions!
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American intelligence agencies believe that Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, is far more interested than his father and predecessor in pursuing a nuclear weapon, according to officials briefed on the assessments.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s father, who was killed at the start of the war in an Israeli attack aided by U.S. intelligence, had sworn off developing a nuclear weapon. While American officials long asserted that Iran wanted to be capable of building a nuclear weapon, many believed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s hesitancy was genuine.
His successor has never publicly called for Iran to build a nuclear weapon. But U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Mojtaba Khamenei and the harder-line government that emerged after the United States and Israel killed many of Iran’s previous leaders have ambitions to develop advanced nuclear weaponry.
The current government has already worked to assert greater control over the Strait of Hormuz and proved a difficult negotiating partner. If the U.S.-Israeli war has made Tehran more, rather than less, likely to pursue a nuclear weapon, it would amount to one more grave consequence of the killing of the supreme leader and the steps toward regime change the Trump administration initially pursued.
American officials caution that most of the intelligence on Mojtaba Khamenei’s views comes from before the war. He was badly injured in the first part of the war, and American officials said he has limited his communications and public appearances because of his injuries and also because he does not want to be targeted in an airstrike.
The officials assess that he remains in charge of the government but does not have the absolute authority and influence of his father, who ruled for more than 36 years.
The assessment comes as President Trump is weighing whether to intensify the military campaign against Iran. A determination that the supreme leader is potentially open to pursuing a bomb would provide additional justification for an escalation.
While U.S. officials insist Tehran has not made any moves to restart its nuclear program, Iran has taken some steps to preserve its nuclear assets after the U.S. strikes on key facilities last year or during pauses in fighting during the current war.
Iran has moved at least some centrifuges, according to American officials, to a heavily fortified underground complex in central Iran that the United States refers to as Pickaxe Mountain. The Wall Street Journal first reported this week that Israeli intelligence had tracked the movement of the centrifuges.
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A billboard in Tehran of Iran’s three supreme leaders, including Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei at right. A determination that he is potentially open to pursuing a bomb would provide additional justification for an escalation of the Trump administration’s military campaign. Credit…Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times
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