Iran has the capability to make a nuclear bomb but has not decided whether to build one, according to a new Al Jazeera report.
“In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60 percent and we can easily produce 90 percent enriched uranium. . . . Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build one,” said Kamal Kharrazi, a senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The adviser told Al Jazeera‘s Arabic service on Sunday that Iran will directly respond against Israel if its security is targeted.
Tehran has previously denied seeking nuclear weapons. It has claimed it is refining uranium for civilian energy uses.
In 2018, former president Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that saw Tehran pull back on its uranium enrichment in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
Iran began violating the pact’s nuclear restrictions after a year of Trump’s policy. Tehran previously said its violations are reversible if the U.S. lifts sanctions and rejoins the agreement, though talks indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran have stalled since March.
The new report comes days after President Biden and Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid signed a joint declaration vowing to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
“The United States stresses that integral to this pledge is the commitment never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and that it is prepared to use all elements of its national power to ensure that outcome,” said the statement, signed during Biden’s trip to Israel on Thursday.
“The only way to stop a nuclear Iran is if Iran knows the free world will use force,” Lapid said.
Biden said he believes diplomacy is the best way to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. However, he said last week that he was open to using force to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon “as a last resort.”
The president said preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is “a vital security interest for Israel and the United States and, I would add, for the rest of the world as well.”