Blinken: Iran one-two weeks away from producing enough material for nuclear weapon
Top diplomat stresses Tehran has not yet produced a nuke, which would take longer; urges Iran to ‘pull back on work it’s been doing,’ says US ‘maximizing pressure across the board’
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday warned Iran can now produce the necessary fissile material for an atomic bomb in as little as a week or two, but has yet to take steps to assemble a weapon.
Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, Blinken indicated he was not optimistic about the chances for reform in Iran despite the recent election of a relatively more moderate candidate, as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is still the one who “calls the shots.”
“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,” he said.
Blinken blasted Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, which the former president defended in his speech to the Republican National Convention Thursday night, saying Tehran “was broke” when he was in office but is now “very close to having a nuclear weapon.” Blinken, however, seemed to argue it was Trump’s approach that led to Iran being on the cusp of nuclear breakout capabilities.
“Instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, it is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that,” he said, clarifying that Iran has not yet produced a weapon itself, which would take far more time.
Blinken reiterated that the US would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, adding the administration still prefers a diplomatic route to preventing this scenario.
“What we need to see, if Iran is serious about engaging, is actually pulling back on the work that it’s been doing on his program.”
“Second, we have been maximizing pressure on Iran across the board. We’ve imposed more than 600 sanctions on Iranian persons and entities. We haven’t lifted a single sanction,” he asserted.
Since the collapse of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers following the US’s unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018, Iran has pursued nuclear enrichment just below weapons-grade levels. Western powers say there is no credible civilian reason for that. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful, but officials have recently said the Islamic republic could change its “nuclear doctrine” if it is attacked or its existence is seen as threatened by Israel. That has prompted alarm at the International Atomic Energy Agency and in Western capitals.
Reports last month before the presidential election indicated Iran’s leadership was considering whether to go ahead with producing a nuclear weapon. Iranian president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian, who Blinken referred to Friday, has called for “constructive relations” with Western countries to “get Iran out of its isolation” and favors reviving the 2015 deal.
Amid recent concerns, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was said to reestablish a series of working groups last month to deal with Iran’s nuclear program.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
