US: Iran 'could make materials for a nuclear bomb in just 12 DAYS'

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% : Meanwhile, a top Defence Department official told the US House of Representative's Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that Iran could make enough fissile material for one nuclear weapons in under two weeks if Tehran choose to pursue it.'Iran's nuclear progress since we left the (deal) has been remarkable,' Colin Kahl said.
54% : Pictured: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaking during a ceremony in Tehran, February 15
52% : Iran's mission to the UN told the AP that Massimo Aparo, a top IAEA official, visited the Islamic Republic last week 'and checked the alleged enrichment rate.''Based on Iran's assessment, the alleged enrichment percentage between Iran and the IAEA is resolved,' the mission contended.'Due to the IAEA report being prepared before his trip, his trip's results aren't in it and hopefully the IAEA director-general will mention it in his oral report to the board of governors' in March.
51% :'Iran informed the agency that 'unintended fluctuations' in enrichment levels may have occurred during the transition period,' the IAEA report said.
48% : Meanwhile, new report suggests UN's nuclear watchdog found uranium particles enriched up to 83.7 percent in Iran's underground Fordo nuclear siteIran could make enough fissile for one nuclear bomb in 'about 12 days,' a top US Defense Department official warned on Tuesday, a dramatic fall from the estimated one year it would have taken while the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was in effect.
48% : But right now, the JCPOA is on ice,' Kahl added.
48% : But Fordo, which sits under a mountain near the holy Shiite city of Qom, some 55 miles southwest of Tehran, remains a special concern for nations.
48% : Speaking in Berlin, Israel's visiting foreign minister, Eli Cohen, pointed to two options to deal with Iran - using a so-called 'snapback' mechanism in the Security Council resolution that enshrined the 2015 nuclear deal to reimpose U.N. sanctions, and 'to have a credible military option on the table as well.''From our intelligence and from our knowledge, this is the right time to work on these two specific steps,' he said.
47% : The confidential quarterly report by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency distributed to member states likely will raise tensions further between Iran and the West over its nuclear program, particularly after Kahl's admission.
47% : The IAEA report only speaks about 'particles,' suggesting that Iran isn't building a stockpile of uranium enriched above 60 percent - the level it has been enriching at for some time.
47% : Any explanation from Iran, however, likely won't be enough to satisfy Israel, Iran's regional archival.
45% : The US intelligence community, as recently as this past weekend, has maintained its assessment that Iran isn't pursuing an atomic bomb.'To the best of our knowledge, we don't believe that the supreme leader in Iran has yet made a decision to resume the weatherization program that we judge they suspended or stopped at the end of 2003,' CIA Director Williams Burns told CBS' 'Face the Nation' program.
44% : 'Discussions between the agency and Iran to clarify the matter are ongoing.'
41% : Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl made the comment to a House of Representatives hearing when pressed by a Republican lawmaker why the Biden administration had sought to revive the deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)Tehran already faces internal unrest and Western anger over sending bomb-carrying drones to Russia for its war on Ukraine , and over its brutal crackdown on demonstrations over the death of Mahsa AminiA Russian-operated drone is seen during a Russian drone strike, which local authorities consider to be Iranian made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) Shahed-136, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine October 17
41% : Uranium at nearly 84 percent is almost at weapons-grade levels of 90 percent - meaning any stockpile of that material could be quickly used to produce an atomic bomb if Iran chooses.
39% : While the IAEA's director-general has warned Iran now has enough uranium to produce 'several' bombs, months more would likely be needed to build a weapon and potentially miniaturise it to put it on a missile.
38% :Iran could make enough fissile for one nuclear bomb in 'about 12 days,' a top US Defense Department official said on Tuesday, a dramatic fall from the estimated one year it would have taken while the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was in effect.
38% : German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (right) and Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen (left) speak to reporters as part of Israel's efforts 'to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons' in Berlin, Germany, February 28, 2023
36% : The U.S.' unilateral withdraw from the accord in 2018 set in motion a series of attacks and escalations by Tehran over its program.
35% : Back in 2018, when the previous administration decided to leave the JCPOA it would have taken Iran about 12 months to produce one bomb's worth of fissile material.
35% : But while US officials say Iran has grown closer to producing fissile material they do not believe it has mastered the technology to actually build a bomb.
35% : 'Back in 2018, when the previous administration decided to leave the (deal), it would have taken Iran about 12 months to produce one bomb's worth of fissile material.
34% : Iran denies any such ambition.
34% : Already, Israel's recently reinstalled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened military actions against Tehran.
32% : Under the 2015 deal, which then-US President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, Iran had reined in its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions.
32% : And Israel and Iran have been engaged in a high-stakes shadow war across the wider Middle East since the nuclear deal's collapse.
31% : That's even as Tehran already faces internal unrest and Western anger over sending bomb-carrying drones to Russia for its war on Ukraine, and over its brutal crackdown on demonstrations over the death of Mahsa Amini.
31% : Meanwhile Tuesday, Germany's foreign minister said both her country and Israel are worried about the allegations facing Iran over the nearly 84% enriched uranium.'We are united by concern about the nuclear escalation on Iran's part and about the recent reports about the very high uranium enrichment,' Annalena Baerbock said.
29% :Iran has been producing uranium enriched to 60 percent purity - a level for which nonproliferation experts already say Tehran has no civilian use.
4% : Trump reimposed US sanctions on Iran, leading Tehran to resume previously banned nuclear work and reviving US, European and Israeli fears that Iran may seek an atomic bomb.

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