Iran could produce enough material to develop a nuclear bomb within 12 days, a senior Pentagon official told lawmakers on Tuesday.
Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of Defense for policy, said Tehran’s nuclear development progress has been “remarkable” since the Trump administration withdrew from a nuclear pact in 2018.
“In 2018 … it would have taken Iran about twelve months to produce one bomb’s worth of fissile material,” Kahl told lawmakers at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. “Now it would take about twelve days.”
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog recently warned Iran has enriched uranium at one nuclear site up to 83 percent, close to the 90 percent enrichment level needed to produce weapons-grade material.
About 192 pounds of Iran’s uranium stockpile is already enriched up to 60 percent and the nation could produce several bombs, according to the UN, but it would likely take months to fit those onto missiles.
Negotiations between the Biden administration and Iran on restarting a key nuclear pact to constrain Tehran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons have stalled in recent months.
Kahl said the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is “on ice” and “not on the horizon in the near term” for the Biden administration.
“The administration’s position remains that a diplomatic deal to put constraints around Iran’s program remains the best alternative to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,” he told lawmakers.
“But the president has also made clear that his policy is Iran will not get a nuclear weapon — period,” he added. “And if a diplomatic outcome is not possible, then we have other options.”
The JCPOA, enacted in 2015 during the Obama administration, lifted sanctions on Iran in return for restrictions on Tehran’s ability to enrich uranium to levels where it could be developed into nuclear weapons.
Trump scrapped the agreement in 2018, calling it a “bad deal” for the U.S. before reimposing sanctions on Iran.
The Biden administration began indirect negotiations with Iran in April 2021 to revive the deal, but talks dragged out and no deal emerged.
In December, a video surfaced of President Biden saying at a rally last year the Iran nuclear deal was “dead” but his administration was not going to announce it.
When asked to comment on the video, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged there was “no progress” with the Iran deal.
“We don’t anticipate any progress, anytime in the near future,” Kirby told reporters at the time.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has also raised tensions between Tehran and Washington. Iran has reportedly been shipping explosive drones to Moscow for months.