July 24, 2026
Iran’s new leader is more open to pursuing a nuclear weapon, U.S. intelligence says
Rosemary Kelanic, the director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities, a think tank skeptical of American military intervention, said the war and the announcement this week that the United States may help Saudi Arabia build enrichment facilities make it “significantly more likely” that Iran pursues a nuclear weapon.
“Iran now has a much greater incentive to weaponize to deter future U.S. or Israeli attempts at collapsing the regime or the Iranian state, which means that the war is counterproductive to its own ostensible goals of preventing Iranian proliferation,” she said.
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