U.S. intelligence officials: If the Fordow nuclear facility is attacked or Khamenei is assassinated, Iran may turn to nuclear weapons development.

Jin10 data reported on June 20th, according to the New York Times, despite Iran having stockpiled a large amount of enriched uranium that can be used to make nuclear bombs, U.S. intelligence officials stated that the intelligence community still believes Iran has not yet made a final decision on whether to manufacture nuclear weapons. This assessment has not changed since March of this year when the intelligence community last evaluated Iran's intentions—even though Israel has already launched attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. A senior U.S. intelligence official stated that if U.S. forces attack Iran's Fordow uranium enrichment facility or Israel kills Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei, Iranian leaders might turn to nuclear weapon development. However, for many hawks on Iran issues in the U.S. and Israel, it is not important whether Iran has decided to build a nuclear bomb; they believe Tehran's nuclear capabilities are already sufficient to pose an existential threat to Israel. This issue has long been the focal point of debates on Iran policy, and as Trump considers whether to bomb the Fordow nuclear facility, the debate has reignited.