IRAN: A senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Qatar’s that Iran is technically capable of creating a nuclear bomb but has not decided whether to create one.
After US President Joe Biden’s four-day visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia came to a close, Kamal Kharrazi spoke, promising to prevent Iran from “acquiring a nuclear weapon”.
Kharrazi’s remarks were a rare indication that Iran, which has long denied wanting nuclear weapons, would be interested in developing them.
Iran claims to have the technical means to generate 90 percent enriched uranium. “In just a few days, we were able to enrich uranium to a level of 60 percent,” Iran said.ability to create a nuclear weapon., but it has not yet made the decision to do so.Iran already exceeds the 3.67 percent maximum allowed by the nuclear agreement it signed with major powers in 2015 by enriching its uranium to up to 60%. A nuclear bomb can be made with uranium that has been enriched to 90%.
Former US President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear agreement in 2018, which had allowed Iran to end its uranium enrichment programme in exchange for respite from economic sanctions.
Tehran began breaking the nuclear constraints of the agreement in response to Washington’s exit and its reimposition of severe sanctions.
The development of nuclear weapons was prohibited by Khamenei in a fatwa, or Islamic decision, issued in the early 2000s. Last year, Iran’s intelligence minister warned that Western pressure would lead Tehran to seek for such weapons.
Iran claims it is solely processing uranium for peaceful purposes, including as producing electricity, and that any violations of the international agreement may be corrected if the United States relaxes its sanctions and rejoins the agreement.
After 11 months of informal negotiations between Tehran and Biden’s administration in Vienna, the general contours of a revitalised deal were largely reached in March.However, difficulties arose, notably Tehran’s request that Washington provide assurances that no US president will renege on the agreement in the same way that Trump did.
