Is this a carefully planned diversion, or is it genuine this time? The White House claims that Iran is close to obtaining nuclear weapons capability.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the Islamic Republic will have sufficient enriched uranium to create fissile material for a nuclear weapon within “one or two weeks.”
“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,” Blinken said at a forum in Colorado.
He mentioned a caveat, noting that there is currently no evidence of Iran actively seeking a nuclear weapon. Nonetheless, the timing is noteworthy in light of the Biden administration’s reelection challenges and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming address to Congress next week.
“What we need to see, if Iran is serious about engaging, is actually pulling back on the work that it’s been doing on his program,” Blinken continued.
“Second, we have been maximizing pressure on Iran across the board. We’ve imposed more than 600 sanctions on Iranian persons and entities. We haven’t lifted a single sanction,” he said.
However, the irony lies in the fact that it is evident that the sanctions have not been effective. Despite Biden and Democrats’ previous criticism of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign, little progress has been made.
Blinken still touted the Biden admin’s record on Iran at the Aspen Security Forum, describing, “When this administration came in, we tried to pursue again, nuclear diplomacy with Iran, because if you could at least take one problem off the board, which is Iran potentially with a nuclear weapon, that’s inherently a good thing.”
The White House asserts that it continues to exert significant influence, especially in light of the Gaza crisis and the recent Israeli assault on the Iranian embassy in Damascus, which escalated tensions. Axios recently revealed that the Biden administration’s covert pressure efforts have produced only minimal outcomes.
- The U.S. officials said the Iranians came back with a response that included explanations for these nuclear activities, stressing there has been no change in policy and they are not working on a nuclear weapon.
- The exchange of messages and other information obtained by the U.S. and Israel addressed some of the concerns and somewhat eased anxieties over the Iranian research and development activities, U.S. and Israeli officials said.
- A U.S. official said that the message the U.S. sent to the Iranians was effective, but added there are still significant concerns about the Iranian nuclear program.
Iran’s recent declarations have shown a growing boldness, and as a result, the previous diplomatic efforts do not appear to be “effective.”
Undoubtedly, Iranian leaders are closely monitoring the US presidential race, particularly due to the possibility of a future Trump administration being filled with Iran hawks, similar to the first one.
In the meantime, Israel has pledged to launch a preemptive strike if its intelligence indicates that Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons and is on the verge of achieving this goal.
Concurrently, opponents of Netanyahu have accused him of adopting a hardline stance for political reasons, citing his approach towards Gaza as an example.
