Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain
Feb 18, 2026
A former senior U.S. intelligence official who is an informal advisor to the Trump administration on Middle East policy told Drop Site that, based on his discussions with current officials, he assesses an 80-90% likelihood of U.S. strikes within weeks.
Iran realizes that it is facing an unprecedented threat from the U.S. if a deal that conforms with Trump’s terms is not reached, former Pentagon official Jasmine El-Gamal told Drop Site. “This is not a dress rehearsal,” she said. “This is it. This is not the negotiations of last year or the year before or the year before that. They’re backed into a corner. There’s no off ramp.”
Its never been about anything Iran is doing. They have never had a nuclear weapons program.
Can you explain why they were mass producing weapons-grade uranium?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1mg7kx2d45o
Not that I support this action, but Don’t they have an enrichment facility with centrifuges?
Just the fact that USA is comfortable attacking them means they don’t have nukes.
They want nuclear energy, not weapons (though it’s pretty stupid for them, nukes are the only thing stopping US monster)
They have nuclear power plants that require enriched uranium.
If Iran wanted a nuclear bomb, instead of spending months trying to enrich Uranium beyond what’s required for power and medicine, they could simply chemically separate plutonium out from spent fuel.
A uranium bomb is easier to develop and mass producing enriched uranium with existing centrifuges is as well.
The reports from the IAEA clearly showed Iran had put their centrifuges in a cascade to make as much weapons grade uranium from mid 2024 to the attacks last summer.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-stock-near-bomb-grade-uranium-grows-sharply-iaea-report-shows-2025-02-26/
I wouldn’t take a Lemmy comment as evidence either way.