Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister: Iran Could Produce Dozens of Nuclear Bombs a Year  Zach Pontz  5-21-13

If Iran is not stopped from developing the capability to build a nuclear bomb, the Islamic Republic could become a “nuclear superpower” that produces dozens of bombs per year and has hundreds of bombs in its arsenal, Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said Tuesday.

“This is a ramified nuclear industry that has been built not to produce a few bombs but to produce fissionable material for dozens and hundreds of nuclear bombs. The issue at hand is not a nuclear state but the possibility of creating a nuclear superpower,” Steinitz said according to an Israeli government communique. “Today, the Natanz facility has about 12,000 centrifuges and plans to reach 54,000. It will be able to enrich enough uranium to produce 20-30 atomic bombs per annum.”

“The Iranian nuclear program is changing the rules of the game,” Steinitz added. “It is a kind of ‘black swan’ or ‘black eagle’ and it will change the state of Israel, the state of the Middle East and even the world situation. The Iranians’ ambition is to change the global balance of power from end to end, between Islam and the West.”

Steinitz also warned that, though Iran has not yet developed a nuclear weapon, it still poses a great risk to the West.

“It already has missiles directed towards Israel and missiles that cover much of mainland Europe and is making a concerted effort to basically have intercontinental ballistic missiles.”