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The Price of Abandoning Diplomacy Is a Nuclear Iran
Has the U.S. traded inspectors for assassins?
Fereydoon Abbasi doesn’t flinch.
In a May 2025 interview, the head of Iran’s nuclear program sits beneath a fluorescent haze, his voice calm, deliberate, unnervingly casual, as if he’s explaining how to cook his favorite soup. But he’s not.
He is explaining how to cook up a nuclear bomb. 90% uranium, some plutonium, electromagnetism, some centrifuges, and the right cone shapes. “We’ve had the ability for 15 to 20 years,” he says, almost bored.
So why hasn’t Iran built a nuclear bomb?
“So far,” Abbasi says calmly, “we haven’t received orders to build [a nuclear weapon].”
Abbasi doesn’t get sentimental about weapons of mass destruction. He proudly explains that if the Iranian government ever gave the order, he would build a nuclear bomb. No hesitation. No regret.
The interviewer then asks what would happen if U.S. or Israeli forces took out their nuclear facilities. “Our capabilities are spread all over the country,” Abbasi shrugs. “Target the sites…it’ll be inconsequential to our timetables.”
Are Abbasi’s boasts true? We’ll never know. He is now dead. He was assassinated by Israeli forces on June 13, 2025…
