As rain poured on the northern provinces of Iran in late March, a somber crowd snaked by means of the mountain ranges of Asara carrying the coffin of Mohammad Reza Kia. The metropolis of just some thousand folks was draped in banners now hailing the younger nuclear scientist as a “martyr of the imposed war.”
Piecing collectively data on Kia and the circumstance of his obscure dying is tough, however two weeks in the past his mom stated in a brief clip that he was killed in an assault.
Beyond a number of analysis papers attributed to him and an inactive social media web page bearing his title, the solely data obtainable is that he was a doctoral candidate in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Amirkabir University of Technology from 2010 to 2017.
Kia’s killing, and these of numerous Iranian scientists in all elements of the nation, demonstrates the lengths to which Israel and the United States are keen to go to be sure that Tehran’s skill to weaponize its nuclear program is considerably curtailed after the warfare ends.
Last week, US President Donald Trump stated the US was on observe to obtain its aims in the Iran warfare – together with stopping Tehran from creating a nuclear weapon – and instructed the battle may final two to three extra weeks. But Iran nonetheless retains a whole lot of kilograms of the core element wanted to construct a bomb, in addition to many years of expertise. As the US and Israel look to wind down the warfare, they are determined to goal that expertise in a bid to cripple the nuclear program.
Over the previous many years, Iran constructed an intensive information ecosystem round its nuclear program – college departments, specialised equipment, and a sturdy system that included home uranium mining, processing, enrichment utilizing superior centrifuges, and storage in stockpiles. Experts say that even when Iran’s program is peaceable, Tehran has the structure to weaponize it ought to it select to.
An Israeli safety supply stated all of these are on its hit record.
A number of days after Kia’s funeral, one other strike hit a constructing 300 miles away, killing 9 folks – together with Ali Fouladvand, a scientist in command of analysis at a number one group lengthy accused by Western powers and Israel of serving as a entrance for buying the information wanted to weaponize Iran’s nuclear program.
The founding father of the group, identified by its Persian acronym SPND, was Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a number one nuclear scientist broadly believed to have been assassinated by Israel six years in the past. The group’s present chairman, Jabal Amelian, was killed in the preliminary wave of Israeli-US strikes in late February, whereas different main figures have been systematically focused by Israel since final 12 months.
“Every link in the nuclear production chain is a target – from the knowledge base to the production floor. The goal is to cut off all the roots,” an Israeli safety supply instructed NCS. “From the people working in laboratories to the factories that produce components for those labs.”
When the United States and Israel launched a warfare on Iran final month, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his high navy and intelligence officers had been killed in a focused operation designed to eradicate the regime’s main figures.
Israel seems to have taken the lead on assassinating even low-level figures linked to Iran’s nuclear program whereas systematically degrading the information facilities that might show helpful in the future.
Israel’s technique expanded in June 2025. It killed the high figures in the Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace pressure – the commanders chargeable for Iran’s missile capabilities, which may help in creating a nuclear warhead – whereas additionally concentrating on greater than a dozen of the nation’s high nuclear professors and students, together with Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, one among Iran’s most notable physicists.
“Israel is striking every stage of the production process – including iron and steel plants that are not directly part of the military industry but could eventually contribute to rebuilding the production process,” the supply stated.
It can also be hitting particular departments at universities whereas additionally trying to considerably degrade the advanced provide chain wanted to keep Iran’s nuclear program.
“In terms of knowledge – scientists, libraries, archives, chemical labs, the people working in all these places – and also the ranks that could replace them” are all targets, the supply instructed NCS.
Even as Iran insisted that its nuclear program was fully peaceable, Western nations have lengthy suspected it of utilizing entrance firms to circumvent worldwide monitoring and develop dual-use applied sciences that may very well be quickly repurposed to weaponize the program if the determination had been made.
Nicole Grajewski, an assistant professor at the Center for International Studies at Sciences Po in Paris, famous that nuclear specialists consider Iran had performed diagnostic exams, nuclear results modeling, and detonation simulations, all indicators that Tehran was buying the information wanted to weaponize its program when desired.
US intelligence assessments have stated there isn’t any proof Iran was attempting to weaponize its nuclear program, however specialists say Iran used its standing as a nuclear threshold state – one which retains the skill to construct a bomb – as a supply of leverage in talks with the West.
Iranian officers at the closely sanctioned SPND had constructed a network of subordinate organizations designed to develop expertise and purchase dual-use applied sciences that the United States says are supposed to collect the information wanted for nuclear weaponization.
“Iran is the only country in the world without nuclear weapons that is producing uranium enriched to 60 percent and it continues to use front companies and procurement agents to obscure its efforts to acquire dual-use items from foreign suppliers,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated in a press release saying the sanctioning of SPND final 12 months.
After Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal struck by the Obama administration in 2015, Tehran started putting in superior centrifuges to speed up its uranium enrichment. It succeeded in amassing a big stockpile of extremely enriched uranium – sufficient to construct a nuclear weapon.
More than 400 kilograms of extremely enriched uranium had been stockpiled in Iran, elevating critical issues amongst worldwide companies, which questioned why the Islamic Republic would wish such a big amount if its nuclear program was actually peaceable. The stage of enrichment wanted for nuclear energy is underneath 4%, however Iran started enriching uranium as a lot as 60% after Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal in 2018.
When Israel and the United States struck Iran’s closely fortified nuclear amenities final 12 months, the destiny of the extremely enriched uranium turned more and more unclear. The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, instructed PBS in an interview printed Friday that the materials is believed to be in Isfahan and may presumably be moved.
“The nuclear sites that we obliterated… have been hit so hard that it would take months to get near the nuclear dust,” Trump stated in an deal with final week. In a Reuters interview on April 1, he added that the enriched materials is “so far underground, I don’t care about that.”
Before that remark, the Wall Street Journal cited US officers as saying Trump was weighing a navy operation to extract the uranium, although no determination had been made.
Iran has been deliberately obscure concerning its entry to the materials, however it supplied to dilute it throughout negotiations with the US earlier than the warfare started in February.
“That was a big offer, a big concession in order to prove that Iran has never wanted nuclear weapons and would never want them,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi instructed CBS final month.
Despite Israel concentrating on key amenities to degrade Iran’s nuclear program, Grajewski stated that Iran’s uranium stockpiles and years of collected technical information would suffice to construct a simplified, gun-type bomb ought to the nation determine to shift its posture.
“Iran can still create a nuclear weapon, it’s just a matter of political will,” Grajewski stated. “If the war stops, Iran could theoretically embark on a rapid effort for weaponization within one to two years.”