Iran was 'running' to build nuclear bomb, says former Israeli prime minister

Tehran would have built more ballistic missiles than Russia if left unchecked, Yair Lapid tells UK parliament

An Israeli attack on Tehran. Yair Lapid has claimed 'Iran revived the weapon group that was out of the game since the beginning of the 2000s'. Reuters

Israeli intelligence discovered that Iran had revived its “weapon group” and was “running” to develop a nuclear bomb, leading to the attacks on the country, former prime minster Yair Lapid has claimed.

Mr Lapid also revealed in a remote appearance before the British parliament that the level of manufacturing by Iran would have allowed the regime to have “more ballistic missiles than Russia” in two years.

Despite being a bitter opponent of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Lapid, the current leader of the opposition, stated that after being briefed on the intelligence about Iran’s plans he fully supported Israel’s attacks.

The intelligence that “we were seeing and sharing with Americans, the fact that Iran revived the weapon group that was out of the game since the beginning of the 2000s” justified the 12-day assault, he said.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said: 'The world is a safer place than it was 12 days ago.' AP

‘Running for a bomb’

The “weapon group”, that is understood to comprise of top scientists, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and ballistic missile teams, were “directly ordered” to create a nuclear bomb, he told MPs on the foreign affairs committee.

“They were running for a bomb,” said Mr Lapid, 61, who was Israeli prime minister in 2022. “I don't think Israel or the world can afford Iran even as a [nuclear bomb] threshold country. This was more than a threshold country.”

The warning from intelligence stated that people would “wake up one morning with the first experiment of a nuclear weapon in the Iranian desert and this would have thrown the entire Middle East into a nuclear arms race”, he added.

Israel’s pre-emptive attack, whose legitimacy under international law has been questioned, was justified as “the danger was closing down on us and everyone else in the region and therefore we were forced into action,” claimed the former prime minister. “They were running for a bomb, I don't think Israel or the world can afford that.”

The suggestion that Iran was attempting to head for nuclear weaponisation was backed by the nuclear inspectors report shortly before the bombing started. The International Atomic Energy Agency stated that Iran had consistently failed to provide information on “undeclared nuclear material and activities” at “multiple undeclared locations”.

The US and Israeli bombardment of Iran had therefore been “a good thing”, Mr Lapid said, as “the world is a safer place than it was 12 days ago”.

Better deal

He admitted that despite the deep dropping of US Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-busting bombs, it would take some time to assess fully how far it had been destroyed as satellite could not give the full picture.

But all the major nuclear facilities had been hit which meant “the majority of it might be gone, but not everything”. He warned the regime would do its best by “deceiving and cheating” to restore the nuclear programme by gathering the right materials therefore the level of supervision in any peace agreement “is going to be critical”.

Referring to the nuclear agreement struck with Iran in 2015 that US President Donald Trump abandoned three years later, Mr Lapid said any “deal would need to be better than the JCPOA” (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) with no uranium enrichment allowed.

Asked about whether he wanted regime change, the politician said this was for the Iranian people to decide but that they should “take into consideration in this past 12 days, the fact that they have just realised billions and billions of dollars were taken from the schools, hospitals, roads and housing”.

Meanwhile, Britain’s Foreign Secretary would not answer a question in Parliament from Conservative MP Nick Timothy after being asked whether the US strikes on Iran were legal.

David Lammy evaded the question and said he spoke to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio every week. He did criticise Iran’s “horrendous human rights record” and condemned the country for being “the worst sponsor of state terrorism in the world”.

However, he said a diplomatic solution to the Iran-Israel conflict was needed, as “once you have acquired the ability to enrich uranium to 60 per cent, the science doesn't go and that knowledge is there”.