TEHRAN- The Washington Times on Monday published an article that took everyone by surprise, alleging that Tehran “may already have five nuclear bombs and may have as many as a dozen by May.”

The article purportedly stated that “certain intelligence estimates, as early as this past October, asserted that Iran could have enough enriched weapons-grade uranium for one bomb within a week and enough for five nuclear bombs within six weeks. It has been more than three months since those estimates were made.”

Interestingly, it tried to raise a question about the availability of only “one” bomb and why Tehran avoided such a bombshell from being publicized. In its response, the writer tried to steal the limelight by showing fictitiously that Tehran has gone to great lengths to build several ones and at diverse locations. 

What about the reasons? The writer suggested that if there is one bomb, it is easy for the U.S. and Israel to expend considerable effort to find and destroy it — but more bombs in more locations makes this effort increasingly complex, if not almost impossible. 

Over the last decades, western officials and those from the Israeli regime tried to boast about the possibility of Iran building nukes. 

The Biden administration has launched such saber-rattling rhetoric to highlight the manufactured threat of Iran's nuclear program. 

Barack Obama and Donald Trump made similar boasts when they were in office, claiming they did all their best to hinder Iran from making bombs. 

Worst of all, the Israeli regime took a step further to announce that it would attack Iran if convicted that it has made bombs! 

When it comes to Iran, all western standards are gone. They would let such a regime attack another country on certain unfounded allegations.   

Iran has kept its word not to build the bomb. It is the West that should be blamed for reneging on its promises in the Joint Comprehended Plan of Action (JCPOA). 

In 2018, former U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the nuclear pact, under which Iran curbed its uranium enrichment work, in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

In reaction to Washington’s withdrawal and its re-imposition of harsh sanctions, Tehran warned of dwindling the pact’s nuclear restrictions.

In a commentary note in 2022, Kamal Kharrazi, a senior aide to Ayatollah Khamenei, said that “in a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium ... Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build one.”

Back in 2023, Iran accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of issuing a threat in his UN General Assembly speech to utilize nuclear weapons against the Islamic Republic.

Tehran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, sent a letter of complaint to the UN secretary general and the presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council, expressing “strong condemnation” of Netanyahu’s address. 

Iravani noted the “alarming and serious threat by the prime minister of the Israeli regime to make use of nuclear weapons against Iran.”

All Iranian officials have vehemently disavowed the spurious claims of Iran building a nuclear bomb, referring to a fatwa issued by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei in the early 2000s, banning the development of nuclear weapons.