Iran Nuclear Expert Warns: Iranians Will Still Be Able to Build 10 Nukes ‘Inside a Year’

A professor and nuclear expert who has closely tracked Iran’s nuclear facilities believes that despite Saturday night’s U.S. strike, the regime will still be able to build 10 nuclear weapons within the next year.

Speaking with Mediaite founder Dan Abrams on SiriusXM’s The Dan Abrams Show, Dr. Jeffrey Lewis – a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey — made clear that even after the U.S. military attacks on three nuclear sites, Iran still has enough material to build a significant arsenal.

“If Iran were to further enrich that material — which would not take very long, a month, or two, or three, depending on how many centrifuges they have left available to them — that’d be enough for about 10 weapons,” Lewis said. “So, if everything goes badly, if Iran has retained as much capability as I worry they might, you could see Iran with an arsenal of something like 10 weapons inside a year.”

“To be clear, you fear that Iran still today maintains the capability to create up to 10 nuclear weapons within a year?” Abrams asked.

“I don’t fear it, I know it,” Lewis said. “It’s just a fact.”

The professor went on to explain that Iran has “at least” one enrichment facility the U.S. did not hit in Saturday’s attack, along with an underground production line to produce more centrifuges. In light of that, Lewis questioned the wisdom of the U.S. strike.

“If you don’t get the whole program, then what was the point of doing any of this?” Lewis said.

Abrams followed-up by asking Lewis what the U.S. and Israel could do to destroy the entire Iranian nuclear program. Lewis made clear he considers that outcome a longshot.

“I would not have recommended this course of action precisely because I don’t think you’ll ever be able to get everything with a high degree of certainty,” Lewis said. “And even if you did, then the Iranians could just start over again. So I think it’d be pretty tough.”

Watch above, via SiriusXM and Mediaite YouTube