- They will not stop andthey never intended to.

The nation of Iran is enrichinguranium as never before

in pursuit of the ultimateweapon, a nuclear bomb.

And now Iran's intelligence minister

has made an unprecedented threat.

What is it?

And could it trigger nuclear war

between Israel, Iran, and the US?

Here's Chris Mitchell from Jerusalem.

- [Chris] Iran's intelligenceminister issued the warning.

He claimed Iran's nuclearprogram is peaceful.

And Iran's Supreme leaderKhamenei issued a fatwah

forbidding a nuclear weapon,

but he added, if pressured,Iran could change course.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] If a cat is cornered,

it may show a kind of behaviorthat a free cat would not.

If Iran is pushed in that direction,

then it wouldn't be Iran'sfault but those who pushed it.

Under normal circumstances,

Iran does not have such aprogram and intent at all.

- [Chris] But these arenot normal circumstances.

Alavi's threat comes after Iran announced

it's now enriching uranium one step away

from military-grade uraniumand researching uranium metal,

a key component of a nuclear bomb.

- As we see it, Iran willnot stop enriching uranium.

They never wanted to, they don't today,

and they will not in the future.

- [Chris] While the enrichment goes on,

Iran's Khamenei and PresidentBiden are in a face-off.

Khamenei says no new dealunless the US lifts sanctions,

and Biden says no sanctionsrelief unless Iran returns

to the negotiating table.

- Will the US lift sanctions first

in order to get Iran backto the negotiating table?

- No.

- They have to stopenriching uranium first.

- [Chris] Here in Israel on Tuesday,

Israel Defense Forcesestimated Iran is two years

from getting a nuclear bomb.

Secretary of State, AntonyBlinken recently said,

they might be weeks away.

But some say it's simplya political decision

by Iran's leaders.

- Technologically and scientifically,

we don't see the time as a real problem.

So it's not the time problem,

it's like you say weeks ormonths or a year or two years,

only about the politicalsituation you want to represent.

- [Chris] In the meantime,Israel's chief of staff

has already said Israel's military

is preparing operational plans

in case Israel needs to attackIran's nuclear facilities.

- Well, Chris is here with us.

Chris, you know, the Iranians believe

in what's called al-Mahdi, the 12th Imam

and they believe thatthere'll be devastation

before the 12th Imam is revealed.

So they wouldn't mindkilling a whole lot of people

with a nuclear weapon.

I mean, am I right in that assumption?

- Not exactly, Pat.

We've reported on that for several years.

In fact, a former presidentfrom Iran called Khamenei,

he said that it was gonnabe part of the Imam,

just like you said.

It was gonna be what they wanted to do

to precept the coming of the Mahdi.

A nuclear weapon is exactlywhat they would need

to go ahead and do that.

And not only would it, perhaps precipitate

the coming of the Mahdi, as you said,

but it would also just create that chaos,

exactly what the Mahdi isrequired before he comes.

- Well, the Israel is nottaking this stuff lying down.

What would an Israel strike look like?

- Well, they alreadyhave operational plans.

General Kochavi said the other day

that they were preparingoperational plans.

But you know, Pat, we'vetalked about this for years

and you know that the IDF has those plans.

The general is sending asignal both to the US and Iran

that they would gounilaterally if they needed to.

So other Israel leadersare sending the same signal

of what would they usein a possible strike.

F-35s, they have a lotof F-35s from the US.

They would use tankers to beable to get those F-35s, F-16s,

and any other war planes to Iran.

They would also probably incorporate

special operations during that time.

And you know, right now, Pat,

they can fly over Saudi airspace.

Because the Saudis, theUAE, all these Gulf states

see Iran as an existentialthreat, not only to them,

but to Israel as well.

And, they would probably also have

covert operations as well.

And the assassination ofIran's chief nuclear scientist

just a few weeks ago, somepeople believe by Israel,

was just a sample of what they could do.

- Well, now, what's the meaning is

the Iran's intelligence minister?

What's behind that?

- Well, certainly there ispressure on President Biden, Pat,

and some are calling it extortion.

And what you've seenrecently is a crescendo

of orchestrated threats.

First of all, they saidthey would enrich uranium

more than the nuclear deal allows.

Then they went to enrich uranium to 20%,

one step from weapons-grade.

Now, they're researching uranium metal.

The only use for that is a nuclear weapon.

And so now this threat byIran's intelligence chief,

and it's not the only one, Pat.

A major newspaper saidin a headline recently,

why Iran must seek a nuclear bomb.

So what they want desperately right now

is to get the US to takeaway these economic sanctions

that have crippled Iran's economy.

- What are the Israelis telling you

that they look for inthe Biden administration?

- Well, right now, first of all, Pat,

they're waiting for a phone call.

President Biden hasn't yetcalled the prime minister

while he's been president.

He did call him right afterthe November election.

The White House has kind of dismissed it,

but here in Israel, it's very concerning.

So it looks like theMossad Chief, Yossi Cohen,

might be the point man

on the Iranian nuclear deal with Israel.

He's supposed to meetwith president about that.

Now, if they wanted anything, Pat, here

if they had, their druthers,

they don't want a nuclear deal at all.

But if there was a nuclear deal,

they would, first of all,want no sunset clauses,

which the 2015 nuclear deal had.

They want no money for terror.

In 2015, that deal gavearound billions of dollars,

that went to Hezbollah and otherproxies here in the region.

So that's what they want.

They would also want ballistic missiles

part of that inspection.

And they want inspectionof military sites.

So if they had their druthers,

they don't want a nuclear deal at all.

And I think that's the message Israel,

and perhaps Mossad Chief, Yossi Cohen,

will be sending to the administration.

- Chris, if I could ask you,

what's your gut feelingabout this whole thing?

Do you think Israel's gonna strike 'em?

- Well, Pat, you know, itseems like a perfect storm

and I'm not sure it goes to that measure,

but it's certainly ill winds blowing.

My gut says it's ratcheted toa level that I haven't seen,

with Iran finally comingout in the open and saying,

"If we could, we could goand have a nuclear weapon."

And then Israel, and not only

just the general chief of staff

but other Israelis are saying,

"We'll go ahead and strikeIran if we have to."

For Israel right now, I thinkthe pressure on them is like,

they don't see the kind of ally they had

in the Trump administrationand they're saying,

if Iran is gonna keep pressuringand crossing our red lines,

we might just go aheadand have to strike Iran.

My gut feeling is probablysomething's gonna happen

to prevent that, but it'sreally, really serious

right now here, Pat,with all this scenario,

with what's going on inWashington, Tehran, and Jerusalem,

we'll see what happens.

Certainly it'd be a time to be praying

for the protection of Israeland the peace of Jerusalem.

- Well, Chris, thank you friend,for that terrific report.

Chris Mitchell, our headof our news department

over in Israel and it'sjust a wonderful report,

but it's a frightening thing to think.

I don't think that God'sgonna allow this world

to be blown up with a nuclear explosion.

I just don't think that's in the cards.

But it's certainlysomething we need to watch

because it's very real.

It's not something that's beingdelayed for a year or two.

I mean, it's something that could happen

in the next few weeks.