Iran is capable of producing fissile material for use in a nuclear weapon within “one or two weeks,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday. This alarming revelation comes amidst the recent election of President Masoud Pezeshkian, who has expressed a desire to “get Iran out of its isolation” and has shown support for reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and global powers.
Speaking at a security forum in Colorado, Blinken highlighted Iran’s accelerated progress in its nuclear program, stating, “What we’ve seen in the last weeks and months is an Iran that’s actually moving forward” with its nuclear activities. The United States unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018. The agreement was initially designed to regulate Iran’s atomic activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.
Blinken attributed the collapse of the nuclear deal to the rapid advancements in Iran’s nuclear capabilities. “Instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, Iran is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that,” he said. Despite this capability, Blinken noted that Iran had not yet developed a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s acting Foreign Minister, Ali Bagheri, reiterated his country’s commitment to the JCPOA in an interview with CNN earlier this week. “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.” Bagheri emphasized that Iran remains dedicated to the original 2015 agreement, stating, “Neither I nor anyone else in Iran has talked about or will talk about a new agreement. We have an agreement signed in 2015.”
Blinken’s comments come just days after reports emerged that the US Secret Service had increased security for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump weeks ago, following intelligence about an alleged Iranian plot to kill him.
Sources By Agencies
