The United States estimates the amount of time Iran needs to churn out enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb is now “very short,” a Biden administration official said Friday.
The official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, did not specify the amount of time Iran needs to produce enough material for a nuclear weapon. Estimates have put the breakout time at several months.
“But it’s really short. It is unacceptably short,” the official was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The official also called the new assessment of the Islamic Republic’s breakout time “alarming.”
The remarks came as Western powers reported some progress in talks to save the landmark Iran nuclear deal, but European diplomats warned that they were “rapidly reaching the end of the road.”
In a blow to European mediators, Iran requested a new pause in the talks in Vienna, which aim to bring the United States back into the 2015 agreement and roll back nuclear activities. The Islamic Republic stepped up its nuclear projects after the US withdrawal.
The talks had just resumed in late November after a five-month break following the election of a new hardline government in Iran.
Underlying Western concerns are fears that Iran will soon have made enough progress that the 2015 accord — under which it was promised economic relief in return for drastic curbs on its nuclear work — will be obsolete.
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