As the shadow of an all-out war looms in West Asia, there are also fears of the use of weapons of mass destruction. Israel being said to be possessing huge stock piles of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear arms, Iran is believed to be close to be a nuclear armed power. In an interview last month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Iran is “probably one or two weeks away” from getting their hands on a nuclear weapon.

A senior Iranian official had also said that the country would review its nuclear doctrine amid an increasing threat from Israel. The existential threat to Iran could potentially empower the country to expedite nuclear exploration. Iran currently has sufficient uranium enriched to 60% to build three nuclear weapons if it decides to be a nuclear armed force, as per the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency’s recent report.

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Moreover, the increasing threat the Islamic Republic is facing from Israel is, according to many analysts, giving the country an opportunity to cross the nuclear threshold. As fumes intensify between the two regional foes, Iran has already stated that it has weapons that it has never used before.

The assassination of the Hamas chief on Iranian soil when he came to attend the new president’s swearing-in ceremony as a state guest has dangerously added fuel to the fire in the volatile region.

Though the 2015 US deal with Iran created strict restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions against the country, Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018 by reimposing sanctions on Tehran, which empowered Iran to breach the restrictions on its activities.

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It is reported that Iran has been enriching uranium to up to 60% purity and has enough material enriched to that level. The country can produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb within weeks or days, according to experts.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which works for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, is now unable to monitor Iran’s production and inventory of centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium. It can no longer conduct snap inspections in Iranian facilities. Though there are no indications, Iran could simply set up a secret enrichment site and produce the weapons.

However, Iran has denied planning a nuclear weapon program, saying that if it wanted to build the weapon, no world leader could prevent the country from possessing it. In addition, as Iran seems to be a threat to western and US influence in west Asia, a nuclear-armed Tehran is Russia’s interest too. A nuclear-armed Iran in the region would offer certain advantages to the Russians, prompting speculations about Russia’s potential supply of weapons of mass destruction to Iran amid heightened instability in the region.