section_path: Background/Iranian nuclear program
section_name: Iranian nuclear program
paragraph_text: Iranian nuclear program
  
  Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited Iran's nuclear program as the reason Israel preemptively struck Iran. Iran has consistently said that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes and that it has never intended to develop nuclear weapons. The country developed a covert nuclear weapons program named the AMAD Project in the 1980s and 1990s, which, according to US intelligence assessments, was suspended in 2003. US intelligence assessed that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had not authorised a resumption of the AMAD Project.
  
  Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons and has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
  
  Israel regards Iran's nuclear program to be a strategic threat. Israel says it has the right to take military action against Iran's nuclear program if it believes it has become non-peaceful. In the mid-2000s, the US and Israel sabotaged Iranian nuclear facilities in Operation Olympic Games. The assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists in Tehran since 2010 is attributed to Israel.
  
  In 2015, Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), negotiated by President Barack Obama, the United Nations Security Council and Germany to manage Iran's civilian nuclear development at a limited level. In 2018, President Donald Trump, during his first presidency, suspended US participation in the deal and resumed economic sanctions on Iran, despite the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran was keeping to the deal. Iran retaliated by increasing its uranium enrichment.
  
  Following the assassination of Qasem Soleimani by the US in 2020, Iran said it would no longer abide by JCPOA's enrichment restrictions. By 2021, Iran was enriching uranium to 60% purity, similar to weapons-grade uranium. In March 2025, US Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified that the US intelligence community, "continues to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized a nuclear weapons program". In April 2025, Trump announced negotiations between the US and Iran regarding Iran's nuclear program. The White House declared that Iran had two months to secure a deal, which expired the day before Israel's strikes. In May 2025, the IAEA reported that Iran had amassed 409 kilograms (902 lb) of 60% pure uranium, higher than required for civilian uses and close to military grade. In response, Iran announced a third nuclear enrichment facility, that would be put under IAEA monitoring. Iran insists it does not seek nuclear weapons and Iranian supreme leader Khamenei has repeatedly said there is a fatwa (a legal ruling) against the development of nuclear weapons.
  
  United States Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Michael Kurilla warned on 10 June 2025 that Iran could produce weapons-grade uranium in a week; however, estimates of the time required to make an actual weapon varied from 7 to 12 months at the time of his warning. On 12 June, a day before the Israeli strikes occurred, the IAEA found Iran non-compliant with its nuclear obligations for the first time in 20 years. IAEA director general Rafael Grossi stated in an interview with CNN on 17 June that the IAEA did "not have any proof of a systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon". Following the Israeli attack, Iran started the process of exiting the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which it had ratified in 1970. Iran's foreign ministry said the IAEA resolution declaring Iran non-compliant with its NPT obligations "prepared the ground for the attack".