New American intelligence indicates that a covert team of Iranian scientists is exploring ways to quickly develop a nuclear weapon if the country’s leadership decides to pursue one, The New York Times reports.

The report says the information points to Iran seeking a shortcut to a bomb that would enable them to convert their uranium stocks into a weapon within months rather than years, if necessary, though a decision to race toward a bomb has not been made.

The paper says the intel was gathered in the final months of the Biden administration and shared with the new administration of Donald Trump.

It notes that with Iran’s regional power weakened by the blows to its proxy forces in the region and its failure to significantly hit Israel with its missile barrages, Tehran is anxious to find new ways to deter a strike by Israel or the US.

Concerns have grown among Iran’s top decision-makers that US President Donald Trump might in his second term empower Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike Iran’s nuclear sites while further tightening US sanctions on its oil industry.

Last month, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said Iran was “pressing the gas pedal” on its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade.

Grossi said Iran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it would “dramatically” accelerate the enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, closer to the roughly 90% of weapons-grade.

Western powers called the step a serious escalation and said there was no civil justification for enriching to that level, and that no other country had done so without producing nuclear weapons. Iran, which frequently threatens to destroy Israel, has said its program is entirely peaceful and it has the right to enrich uranium to any level it wants.

However, US intelligence agencies and the IAEA say Iran had an organized military nuclear program up until 2003, and continued to develop its nuclear program beyond civilian necessity. Israel contends that the Islamic Republic never truly abandoned its nuclear weapons program.

According to an International Atomic Energy Agency yardstick, about 42 kilograms (93 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60% is enough in principle, if enriched further, for one nuclear bomb. Grossi said Iran currently had about 200 kilograms of uranium enriched to up to 60%.

Tehran’s foreign minister told Al Jazeera TV last week that Iran will respond immediately and decisively if its nuclear sites are attacked, which would lead to an “all-out war in the region.”

Israel and the US launching a military attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would be “one of the biggest historical mistakes the US could make,” Abbas Araghchi said.