Iran is dangerously close to having enough material to build a nuclear bomb, according to a top Biden administration official, as the prospect of using diplomacy to stop the rogue nation from assembling a weapon has dimmed.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken reported that Iran’s “breakout time,” the amount of time needed to produce enough atomic material for a nuclear bomb, will occur this month. Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, Blinken’s assessment is the shortest breakout time U.S. officials have ever referenced as Iran forges ahead with its nuclear weapons program.
“Where we are now is not in a good place,” Blinken said, blaming the predicament on former President Donald Trump. “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,” he said last month. “They haven’t produced a weapon itself, but that’s something, of course, that we track very, very carefully.”
On the campaign trail to replace Biden, Trump criticizes the president for giving the rogue nation billions in frozen assets both during his administration and when he was vice president under Barack Obama, who infamously sent Iran $1.7 billion in cash on oversized pallets. As president, Trump said he cut off Iran’s ability to sell oil and the country was “broke” and “willing to make a deal.” He blames the Democrat leaders for opening the oil spigot back up and providing the resources Iran uses to sponsor terrorism and build weapons.
Iran has declared the United States “Big Satan” and Israel “Little Satan,” and it is feared that it will use a nuclear device on its enemies if it is able to obtain one. Former President Trump has expressed doubt that Biden’s expected replacement on the Democrat ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris, has the ability to stand up to the leaders of Iran and force them to the table.
Biden’s diplomatic efforts to derail Iran’s atomic aspirations collapsed in 2022 when U.S. officials accused its leaders of making “unreasonable” demands on the International Atomic Energy Agency, a United Nations-based nuclear watchdog. The agency was looking to inspect unexplained traces of uranium found at the country’s nuclear facilities. Since then, the Biden administration maintained that a nuclear deal with Iran was “not on the agenda.”
The election of a new Iranian president has not brightened prospects for an agreement. “We have no expectations that this election will lead to a fundamental change in Iran’s direction or its policies,” said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. “At the end of the day, it’s not the president that has the ultimate say over the future of Iran’s policy; it is the supreme leader, and of course, we have seen the direction that he has chosen to take Iran in. Obviously, if the new president had the authority to make steps to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, to stop funding terrorism, to stop destabilizing activities in the region, those would be steps that we would welcome. But needless to say, we don’t have any expectations that that’s what’s likely to ensue.”