Iran could go ahead and build nuclear weapons after losses among its Middle East allies left it ‘weakened’, White House warns

Iran could make moves towards becoming a nuclear power after it was severely weakened by wars in the Middle East, the White House has warned.

Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s national security advisor, said he has personally warned Donald Trump, the president-elect, that he needs to be ‘vigilant’ for the threat of possible nuclear escalation in the Middle East, which has increasingly suffered under growing wars. 

Iran’s key allies, Hamas, Hezbollah and the former Syrian government run by dictator Bashar al-Assad, have all either been severely damaged or completely destroyed over the past year, which Sullivan warned may push the nation, headed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to go nuclear.   

‘It’s a risk we are trying to be vigilant about now. It’s a risk that I’m personally briefing the incoming team on,’ Sullivan said, adding that he had also consulted with US ally Israel. 

The incoming Trump administration appears to be taking the threat seriously, with the Wall Street Journal reporting earlier this month that he and his team have been seriously considering undertaking preventative strikes against Iran. 

He reportedly told Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he is incredibly concerned that Iran may go nuclear while he is in office, and was hatching plans to prevent this. 

But the strikes would be a major break in the longstanding policy of dealing with Iran using sanctions and diplomacy. 

Alongside the strikes, Trump is considering placing stricter economic sanctions on Iran than when he was last in office. 

Iran currently has enough enriched uranium to produce four nuclear bombs, making it the only country without nuclear weapons that is producing near-weapons grade fissile material. 

If it wanted to, it would take just a few days to convert this into weapons-grade nuclear fuel.

It comes amid reports that Iran has been orchestrating teenagers to attack Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe, as part of its campaign to dominate the Middle East. 

Investigators have linked at least three cases in Stockholm and Gothenburg where teenagers as young as 13 have been hired by Iran-affiliated actors to raise hell at Israeli-linked companies or diplomatic missions. 

Bloomberg reported that the security services of Sweden and Norway, which have long been open societies with minimal levels of policing, are particularly vulnerable to these attacks.

Potential attackers are contacted via WhatsApp, Telegram or TikTok, according to Peter Nesser, a terrorism researcher at Norway’s defence research institute, where they are offered just €1,500 (£1,242) for murder. 

A petrol bomb attack, meanwhile, can cost as little as €120 (£99).