Deep beneath the ground near the Iranian city of Isfahan lies the ayatollahs’ treasure chest. Lead-lined, it contains Iran’s most valuable asset: more than 400 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium.
The world’s most radioactive buried treasure was entombed by the U.S. and Israel during the June war and is thought to be inaccessible without a large excavation effort. But according to a recent U.S. intelligence report, there remains a “very narrow access point” through which the Iranians—or the U.S.—could potentially retrieve the prize.
I’m not being playful when I say this is the treasure of the regime. It cost them hundreds of billions to create, and it is their most powerful weapon—though more in negotiations than in destructive potential. That makes it valuable to the U.S. and Israel as well: Take away the uranium and you remove a load-bearing beam in the regime’s infrastructure.
Fortunately, pulling up IRGC-branded moving trucks is not an option. The site is watched from above by the U.S. and Israel; any Iranian attempt at extraction would be met with an excessive amount of munitions.