Iran is not on the path to building a nuclear warhead.
If they were, they should have between 500 and 1000 of the things by now.
The greatest purity that has been achieved is 20%, you need 90% to make a crude, inefficient weapon and 98% for a decent implosion type.
So, what can you make with 20% purity? Your own reactor fuel comes to mind, even perhaps, an experimental pebble bed reactor (unlikely though).
Let's look at capabilities, which are present and the length of the program It took the Manhattan Project four years to develop a nuclear warhead, Iran's had over a decade (actually, nearing two decades, but who's counting, Washington obviously isn't).
Hell, by now, Iran has had enough time to figure out dial-a-yield, but still has no warheads.
So, why the animosity towards Iran throughout the past generation and change?
Why is Iran so hostile to us?
Well, back in the 1950's, Iran had ejected their royalty and enacted a democratic government.
The Iranian Prime Minister, Mossadegh had sought to audit the documents of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), a British corporation (now BP) and to limit the company's control over Iranian petroleum reserves. Upon the refusal of the AIOC to co-operate with the Iranian government, the parliament (Majlis) voted to nationalize Iran's oil industry and to expel foreign corporate representatives from the country.
That sounds somewhat reasonable, doesn't it? Having the nation have a say in what is pumped, what price is paid, etc?
Not to AIOC!
They tried lobbying the UK government, to no avail. They then lobbied President Truman, being told prompty where to get off.
Well, President Eisenhower was all too happy to acceed to their requests, after all, he did spend a long time in the UK, gotta take care of the buddies!
So, Operation Ajax was born https://en.wikipedia.org/... , the overthrow of the democratic government of Iran and the installation of the corrupt and inept Shah. Many died under his bloody rule, from 1953 to 1979, so it's not remembered fondly.
Meanwhile, the US isn't fond of having our "good works" undone. We had control of Iran, we lost it and the power brokers don't like it any more than they like Cuba not being under their thumbs.
Iran doesn't have much in capability to project military power, so they adopted a more asymmetric warfare methodology, we're loathe to actually invade, due to prohibitive terrain, logisitcal issues and the potential to become mired in Iran in bloody war for decades. So, it's largely been proxy warfare between the US and Iran.
We engage in sanctions, which strangely never touched the oil and natural gas exports of Iran, oh wait, those go to Europe. Can't upset the Europeans!
So, we concoct a nuclear warhead "threat" to keep the ignorant masses in terror of those heathen Iranians to up the ante.
Let's consider what a real shooting war would look like. The Persian Gulf is tiny, with the Strait of Hormus being a miniscule 21 miles across. The UAE is on one side and on the other, the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, with the bulk of the Iranian Navy.
So, shots are fired in anger, mines go across 21 miles, state of the art mines and ancient mines. The Persian Gulf is now impassable. Iranian missiles are fired at US bases in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, leaving them in flames and ruin.
Iranian anti-ship missle defense is also quite effective, we can expect to lose entire carrier groups in any exchange of fire.
One estimate I read suggested five carrier groups destroyed, with part of a sixth before we neutralize Iranian anti-ship missiles.
So, on to the ground game. We insert forces into a hostile nation, again. Now, we're faced with a well trained and equipped military and the various components of the Revolutionary Guard. We'd eventually take some cities, but then we hit the rugged mountains. Things bog down and the blood letting truely begins.
The estimate I read suggested up to 250000 Iranians dead, with up to 100000 US service members, which was the optimistic version, before Iranian resistance ended.
This is what some idiots want.
I say let them lead the way personally and bring their sons and daughters with them.