No grounds to believe regime’s nuclear weapons posed ‘imminent threat’ to US

American president’s claims echo Bush administration's baseless case for WMDs allegedly held by Iraq

- Isabel Coles

When Donald Trump announced the start of the war on Iran, he invoked the “imminent threat” posed by the regime to the US and its allies.

“If we didn’t hit within two weeks, they would've had a nuclear weapon,” Trump said several days later.“When crazy people have nuclear weapons, bad things happen.” In Trump’s rationale, there were echoes of a venture the US had vowed never to repeat. It took months for the Bush administration to make the case that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, culminating in a PowerPoint presentation at the UN security council a month before the US invaded.

The Trump administration made no attempt to establish the “imminent threat” of a nuclear Iran. According to intelligence sources and official statements, it is untrue. Nine months ago, Trump declared Iran’s nuclear facilities had been “obliterated” after the US dropped 14 of its most powerful bunker-buster bombs on Natanz and Fordow, leaving craters so large they can be seen from space.

Since then, Iran made “no efforts” to rebuild its enrichment capability, according to US intelligence assessments. Asked whether Iran had been days or weeks away from building a nuclear bomb, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency, Rafael Grossi, simply said: no.