{"id":554163,"date":"2026-07-22T14:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/554163\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T14:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:36:11","slug":"regime-change-needed-to-avoid-a-nuclear-iran-retired-israel-navy-commander-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/554163\/","title":{"rendered":"Regime change needed to avoid a nuclear Iran, retired Israel Navy commander says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran\u2019s resolve and motivation to pursue nuclear weapons has only increased following the war, V.-Adm. (ret.) Eliezer “Chaney” Marom, a former Israel Navy commander, told 103FM on Wednesday, warning that only regime change could prevent Tehran from obtaining a bomb<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cProducing a nuclear bomb is a complex and difficult undertaking. The Iranians<\/a> were very close when the war began, and fortunately, we disrupted it significantly,\u201d Marom said.<\/p>\n

He added that, according to intelligence assessments, Iran had been extremely close to completing the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were weeks away from a nuclear weapon, unequivocally. I am not the only one saying this. All the intelligence agencies, both Israeli and American, are saying it clearly, including the International Atomic Energy Agency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Israel must not be complacent with Iran war results<\/p>\n

Despite the damage inflicted on the nuclear program, the former Navy commander warned against complacency, estimating that Iran\u2019s motivation to obtain nuclear weapons had only increased following the war.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Israel Navy commander V.-Adm. (ret.) Eliezer ”Chaney” Marom. (credit: MOSHE SHAI\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranians have drawn one clear conclusion from this entire war: \u2018Had we possessed nuclear weapons, everything would have looked different.\u2019 Therefore, their motivation is through the roof. There is only one way to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and that is regime change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

US ‘probably do not have the capability’ to destroy Pickaxe Mountain’s nuclear plant<\/p>\n

Marom later addressed reports that Iran had transferred thousands of centrifuges to a fortified site near Natanz known as Pickaxe Mountain<\/a>. The facility was excavated in rocky terrain dozens of meters underground and is considered particularly difficult to penetrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cGranite is a very, very, very hard mineral. It is almost impossible to penetrate, at least with the bombs the Americans currently possess. At a depth of more than 100 meters underground, beneath a mountain made of granite, the Americans<\/a> probably do not have the capability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Marom said that during his military service, he had visited a similar underground facility in another country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the privilege of visiting such a facility in another country, also deep underground. I can only say that there really is an enormous stockpile of ammunition in that country that is located underground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, Marom said the fortified site was not necessarily the issue that concerned him most.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething else concerns me,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Iranians have already enriched uranium to various levels. They have tons of uranium enriched to 5% and 20%, as well as the familiar figure of 440 kg. enriched to 60%. I am talking about tons. The weaponization group is very difficult to track.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s resolve and motivation to pursue nuclear weapons has only increased following the war, V.-Adm. (ret.) Eliezer “Chaney”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,92,11606,93,143295,140940,43,11011,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-554163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-iran-nuclear","tag-iran-nuclear-bomb","tag-iran-nuclear-deal","tag-iran-us-conflict","tag-natanz","tag-news","tag-nuclear-bomb","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}