Iran is probably only “one or two weeks” away from having enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, according to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
“They haven’t produced a weapon itself, but that’s something of course that we track very, very carefully,” Blinken said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
Blinken blamed the Trump administration from withdrawing from a 2015 deal with Iran that halted uranium enrichment and imposing harsh economic sanctions on Teheran.
“Iran, because the nuclear agreement was thrown out, instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that,” Blinken said.
“One of the biggest mistakes that we’ve made in recent years, was throwing out that agreement and allowing Iran to get out of the box that we put it in.”
Iran has repeatedly denied that it is producing nuclear weapons. Its new President, Masoud Pezshkian, stated in The Teheran Times that “Iran’s defence doctrine does not include nuclear weapons.”
Teheran has also been accused of seeking to kill former president Trump, in the aftermath of the attempt on his life last Saturday.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the Biden administration had informed the Secret Service of an unspecified threat from Teheran against the former president. However, officials added that they do not believe Iran was responsible in any way for Thomas Matthew Crooks’ attempt on Trump’s life.
Iran issued a statement saying that the country “strongly rejects any involvement in the recent armed attack on Trump or claims about Iran’s intention for such an action, considering such allegations to have malicious political motives and objectives.”
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