US Secretary of State says Iran is capable of producing fissile material for use in a nuclear weapon within “one or two weeks,” points accusing finger at Trump for withdrawing from 2015 deal.
Antony BlinkenDavid Azagury, U.S. Embassy Jerusalem
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 Friday, according to a report in the AFP news agency.
Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, Blinken said that “what we’ve seen in the last weeks and months is an Iran that’s actually moving forward” with its nuclear program.
The Secretary of State blamed the acceleration of Iran’s nuclear capabilities on former President Donald Trump’s decision in 2018 to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
“When this administration came in, we tried to pursue again, nuclear diplomacy with Iran, because if you could at least take one problem off the board, which is Iran potentially with a nuclear weapon, that’s inherently a good thing,” said Blinken.
“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 added.
Blinken stressed that Iran had not yet developed a nuclear weapon.
The Secretary of State’s comments follow recent reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) indicating that Iran has accelerated its uranium enrichment.
A report from late June by the UN atomic energy found that Iran has installed half the advanced uranium-enriching machines it said earlier it would quickly add to its Fordow site but has not yet brought them online.
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The IAEA’s previous report determined that Iran has started up new cascades of advanced centrifuges and plans to install others in the coming weeks after facing criticism over its nuclear program.
The UN agency released a report at the end of May which found that Iran has further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
(Israel National News’ North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)
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