Iran can produce material for nuclear bomb in weeks, US says

Iran will be capable of producing the necessary material for use in a nuclear weapon within "one or two weeks," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.

Blinken made the statements at a security forum in the US state of Colorado.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan, meanwhile, said the United States has noted "an uptick of public commentary from Iranian officials musing about that possibility" since the April attacks and counterattacks between Israel and Iran and its allies.

Iran launched in April an unprecedented barrage of missiles and drones targeting Israel after what Iran said was an Israeli strike on its embassy complex in Syria that killed two Iranian generals.

What did Blinken say?

On the Iranian nuclear program, Blinken said, "What we've seen in the last weeks and months is an Iran that's actually moving forward."

"Instead of being at least a year away from having breakout capacity to produce fissile material for a nuclear weapon, they're probably one or two weeks away from doing that," Blinken said, adding that "where we are now is not a good place."

He blamed the pace of this progress on the US withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and global powers known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA.)

Former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018, calling it "defective at its core." The deal involved easing sanctions on Iran in exchange for tougher oversight of its nuclear program to prevent the construction of nuclear weapons.

"Now, they haven't produced a weapon itself, but ... you put those things together, fissile material, an explosive device, and you have a nuclear weapon," Blinken said.

Sullivan, meanwhile, said: "I have not seen a decision by Iran to move" in a way that signals it has decided to actually develop a nuclear bomb right now. He added that Tehran would "find a real problem with the US" should that happen.

Iran's nuclear ambitions

Iranian plans to develop its nuclear program have been at the center of much condemnation and concern in the Middle East and beyond.

The IAEA has said Iran is the only non-nuclear weapons state to enrich uranium to the high level of 60% — just short of weapons-grade. Tehran also keeps accumulating large enough uranium stockpiles for building several nuclear bombs.

Iranian Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri told CNN earlier this week that Iran remained committed to the JCPOA, the official names for the 2015 nuclear deal.

"We are still a member of JCPOA. America has not yet been able to return to the JCPOA, so the goal we are pursuing is the revival of the 2015 agreement," he said. "We are not looking for a new agreement."

rmt/sms (AFP, AP)