The Islamic Republic began to ramp up uranium enrichment levels to 60% purity. This is a big step up from Tehran’s previous 20% purity levels. The announcement came following an apparent attack on the most controversial Natanz Nuclear Site in central Iran.

Two days after the blackout hit Natanz Nuclear Site – which was also hit by fire in July last year –  in what Iranian officials allegedly blamed to be Israeli sabotage, Ayatollahs informed the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA) that Tehran intends to massively ramp up its levels of uranium enrichment.

The Islamic Republic has started enriching uranium on Friday, April 16, 2021, to its highest-ever purity, edging close to weapons-grade levels.

New construction activity at Parchin Military Complex was reported by The Intel Lab on April 17, 2021. “This extensive construction activity since 2018 is probably related to Iran Ballistic Missile Program.”

Although Ayatollahs have continuously denied their intent to assemble nuclear weapons, their decisions push Tehran closer to reaching the 90% enrichment level which is considered weapons-grade.

Tehran’s current slogan, “Nuclear Energy Is Our Unarguable Right,” is not a new sentiment.  And it is not even new that this doubtful sentiment is repeated by the regime that always shouts “Death To America” and seeks to wipe Israel off the map.

The idea of using nuclear energy in Iran for the first time goes back to the 1950s. Although, at that time, it was only limited to a university research program because the Shah of Iran believed that with the large exploitation of crude oil, Iran would one day have to purchase oil for its own needs.

Since Ayatollahs took power in Iran, they tried to threaten the West with nuclear programs.  To achieve their ambitions, they started ramping up uranium enrichment for possible nuke weapons. Since then, Tehran has spent billions of dollars to develop heavy water reactors, production plants, uranium enrichment plants, centrifuge technologies, underground uranium enrichment facilities, and of course military sites.

According to the Tasnim news agency report, in April 2016, only 2% of electricity of the entire country was produced by  the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant. Recently, the Deputy Director of Atomic Energy Organization said Tehran may stop its electricity production due to some problems.

The real reason for all the spending on nuclear energy is the military, as Banafsheh Zand and Kaveh Taheri mentioned in their 2017 essay. Iran, with 221 billion kilowatt-hours, ranked 17th in the world in terms of electricity consumption.

Iran’s electricity industry in 2017, with 265 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity consumption, ranked 16th in the world, meaning the second-largest in the region after Saudi Arabia.

Residential energy consumption in Iran is much greater than in Japan and Norway, 7 times more than that of developed European countries, three times more than the Saudi Arabia, and four times more than Turkey and the world average. On the other hand, the losses of Iran’s electricity network have increased to 37.9 percent.

According to state-run agencies, Iran is the fourth richest nation in the world in terms of fossil fuel reserves, amounting to $2.4 trillion.

Further, hydro is a low-price and renewable source that would be generated from Iran’s water resources if the regime could manage the country’s water resources.

Output also could come from the sun. Iran has vastly sunny expanses; it also has three deserts in the center and east (Dasht-e Kavir, Dasht-e Lut, and Dasht-e Naomid) that can supply more solar energy to the nation than it needs. Iran also has the potential to generate electricity from Biomass, Geothermal Energy, Tidal Power in the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Gulf of Oman. In 2017, an Iranian expert of science and technology designed a native product of a simultaneous extraction energy system of power and water from the sea called “Persian Gulf System.

So, why does Tehran insist on its nuclear program when there is a clear opportunity for cheap new energy productions.. The excuse of producing energy and electricity is nothing but a lie. Its desire for actual power production is a ruse.

Tehran looks for its nuclear capabilities to challenge world peace, not to use it as a peaceful means of nuclear power.

There is no need for 60% or 90% enrichment for medical research reactors and power generation.

Iran has not even complied with its 2015 nuclear agreement (Iran Deal) commitments and had kept its nuclear sites secret from IAEA inspectors until Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed there was a “secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and materiel from Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program” in the Turquzabad district of Tehran.

 Whether the Natanz Nuclear Site incidents were deliberate sabotage or an accident due to negligence that can seriously increase the possibility of another Chernobyl kind disaster that can significantly contaminate approximately hundreds of square miles of land. The regime that cannot provide the physical and cybersecurity of its nuclear facilities is not eligible to have such a high-lethal-potential technology.

The international community should be afraid of the Ayatollahs when Tehran boasts its underground missile bases, as well as its Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which has also hundreds of missile-launching speed boats, which can carry several warheads, each of which can strike a different target.

This is the regime that intimidates neighbors by its missile capabilities and proxies and makes it hard to deal with. So, imagine what Ayatollahs would do if they had nuclear power.

Living with cancer is impossible. A ‘cancerous tumor’ should be removed before it invades nearby nations and spreads to other parts of the globe.

Instead of reviving the regime by signing useless deals, the world should help the Iranian people. As a nation-state, a free Iran will preserve peace.