Secretary of State Antony Blinken Says Iran Is '1-to-2' Weeks From Starting to Build a Nuke
Secretary of State Antony Blinken used the occasion of an interview at the Aspen Security Forum to announce that Iran “is now probably one or two weeks” away from having enough fissile material to construct a nuclear weapon. The real news is that Iran may already have a bomb.
MS KELLY: Which is what you always answer. And then I always ask: So how are you going to stop them? How are you going to stop them?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, there are – by far, the preferable way to do it would be through diplomacy. Where we are now is not in a good place. 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. Now, they haven’t developed a weapon itself —
MS KELLY: Just one or two weeks, that’s what —
SECRETARY BLINKEN: One or two weeks is probably what the realistic breakout time is. They are – they haven’t produced a weapon itself, but that’s something of course that we track very, very carefully. And you put those two things together – the fissile material, an explosive device – and you have a nuclear weapon.
So we’re focused on that. What we’ve seen in the last weeks and months is Iran that’s actually moving forward with its program. So the first thing we need to see if Iran is serious about engaging is actually pulling back on the work that it’s doing on its program.
Second, we of course have been maximizing pressure on Iran across the board. We’ve imposed more than 600 sanctions on Iranian persons, entities of one kind or another. We haven’t lifted a single sanction. And we have much closer coordination now with European partners and allies.
Yes, the Biden White House has definitely been maximizing pressure on the Iranians; see NEW: Biden Unfreezes $6 Billion in Iranian Assets in Deal to Free Five American Hostages. Sensing the weakness that is Joe Biden, Iran has carried on a low-grade hybrid war against the US, killing American servicemen (You Don't Have to Be a 'Hawk' to Know Iran Needs to Pay for Killing American Troops) and using their Houthi proxies in Yemen to attack Saudi Arabia (Situation Rapidly Deteriorating Because of Biden Moves, as Iran-Backed Houthis Fire Missiles at Saudi Arabia) and shipping in the Red Sea (Biden's Surrender to the Houthis in the Red Sea Is About to Become a Crisis). As a bonus, Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear energy corporation, had sanctions lifted and a significant cash infusion shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine (That Reprehensible Biden Iran Deal Just Got Worse).
What is much more likely is that the Iranians have a nuclear weapon on hand. In February 2023, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told the House Armed Services Committee that Iran could make enough fissile for one nuclear bomb in "about 12 days." If they could make enough material for a bomb in "about 12 days" a year and a half ago, there is no reason to assume they didn't. There is nothing in the behavior of the Biden White House that could have possibly deterred them. Just last month, the official White House estimate was 18 months (see How Close Is Iran to Getting Nuclear Weapons? New Info Alarms Intelligence Officials).
Blinken, of course, tried to blame it all on the Trump administration for leaving the Obama-conceived Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that guaranteed Iran a path to owning a bomb without troublesome sanctions by calling Iran out for cheating (Trump Says Iran Is Violating Nuclear Deal and the Left Goes Bonkers (VIDEO) and BREAKING. President Trump's Remarks on Leaving the Iran Nuclear Deal – RedState).
The real fault lies in a strategy based on nothing more than the hope that a terrorist state dedicated to the destruction of the United States could be convinced to forgo developing a nuclear weapon by bribing them.
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