The key is the have a nuclear warhead and integrate it with the in-service missiles for reliable delivery of nukes.
Operationalizing conventional vis a vis non-conventional payload is different. I am sure Iran has worked on it for the unplanned day when nukes become a necessity.
As for Fatwa, Islam permits lying under certain conditions. We can only wait to find out the truth.
Iran had *allegedly* done a lot of work on the steps necessary for that by 2003. in 2003, the only thing that was missing was sufficient fissile material (enriched uranium), which we now have. in 2009 there were also reports that Iran had tested advanced nuclear warhead designs, which shocked the West for how advanced they were.
Stolen records show Iran overcoming key hurdles in 2003 quest for a nuclear bomb, book says
Work on an Iranian nuclear weapon was halted in 2003, but by then Iran’s scientists had mastered nearly all the technical challenges of bombmaking and needed only a reliable source of fissile fuel — either enriched uranium or plutonium — authors David Albright and Sarah Burkhard write in “
Iran’s Perilous Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons,” scheduled for publication next week.
Iran tested advanced nuclear warhead design – secret report
The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as "breathtaking" and has added urgency to the effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.
The sophisticated technology, once mastered, allows for the production of smaller and simpler warheads than older models. It reduces the diameter of a warhead and makes it easier to put a nuclear warhead on a missile.
Extracts from the dossier have been published previously, but it was not previously known that it included documentation on such an advanced warhead. "
It is breathtaking that Iran could be working on this sort of material," said a European government adviser on nuclear issues.
James Acton, a British nuclear weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said:
"It's remarkable that, before perfecting step one, they are going straight to step four or five ... To start with more sophisticated designs speaks of level of technical ambition that is surprising."
Descriptions of "two-point implosion" warheads designs have occasionally appeared in the public domain (there are extensive descriptions on Wikipedia) and they were first developed by US scientists in the 1950s, but
it remains an offence for American officials or even non-governmental nuclear experts with security clearance to discuss them.
Watchdog fears Tehran has key component to put bombs in missiles, the Guardian has learned
www.theguardian.com