Iran’s desire to ramp up nuclear testing has experts fretting over their potentially disastrous consequences, sparking WWW3 fears.

The killing of Hamas leader and ally, Yahya Sinwar, by Israeli forces was a significant set back for the nation, further exposing its vulnerabilities.

Sinwar was killed on October 16 as part of Israel's ongoing offensive in Gaza. Sinwar was behind Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel which killed around 1,200 people - mostly civilians - and the kidnapping of hundreds of Israelis. His attack on Israel was the catalyst of Isreal’s brutal war on the Gaza Strip.

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Hamas and Hezbollah have lost many key figures and leaders to the Israeli forces, weakening the terrorist groups with every blow.

The continuing elimination of key terrorists could see Iranian leaders switch up their policy, from backing the Axis of Resistance, Jewish-majority states’ enemies, to obtaining and potentially testing nuclear weapons. And this has sparked concern among experts, The Mirror reports.

Historian and visiting fellow at Boston University Arash Azizi told the paper that there could be some difficulty for Iran if it focussed on nuclear.

He said: "The Iranian regime has invested billions of dollars and decades of time in building up a coalition of anti-Israel militias, the Axis of Resistance, so it's not very easy for it to shift its strategy now.

"But the fact that the country now finds itself in a direct conflict with Israel has alarmed many in the Iranian establishment and there is a possibility of such a shift. Sinwar's killing reinforces that, although the killing of Nasrollah and Israel's new round of attacks on Hezbollah are a more important factor for Tehran.”

He added that a major shift could only occur after power passes from the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who, at aged 85 is not expected to rule for much longer.

He went on: “One major shift in the last year is that now an increasing number of Iranian strategists advocate for the country to get nuclear weapons and test them.”

The academic said with the Axis of Resistance’s failure to deter Israel, “nuclear deterrent is the only way”, according to their reasoning.

“But this has a lot of inherent problems too and it won't be as easy to follow as its proponents seem to suggest,” he said.

If Iran struggles to form a quick strong relationship with other Hamas figures, Sinwar’s death is a further blow to nation.

Kasra Arabi, director of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) research at United Against Nuclear Iran, a non-profit dedicated to preventing Iran from fulfilling its ambition to possess nuclear weapons, said Sinwar's death caused "irreparable damage."

He told The Mirror: "While critics of Israel’s actions will claim Sinwar can be easily replaced, they fail to understand that the Iranian regime’s terrorist militia network is a deeply personalistic system, which operates through close patron-client relationships that have been cultivated over decades.

"The IRGC – the Iranian regime’s paramilitary organisation which commands the militia network – had invested time and energy to develop Sinwar as 'Tehran’s man' in Hamas. We shouldn’t forget that Sinwar was instrumental in reviving the relationship between Hamas and Iran’s regime after their fallout over the former’s refusal to support Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.”

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