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Iran ‘capable of building nuclear bomb’, says advisor to Supreme Leader

Iran ‘capable of building nuclear bomb’, says advisor to Supreme Leader

Iran

An adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that Iran possesses the technical ability to create a nuclear bomb. But the Islamic Republic has not yet made the decision whether to do so, Kamal Kharrazi said on Sunday (July 17), in a conversation with Al Jazeera news channel. He was speaking after Joe Biden’s four-day visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia came to a close, during which the US president promised to prevent Iran from ‘acquiring a nuclear weapon.’ Kharrazi said, “In a few days, we were able to enrich uranium up to 60 per cent and we can easily produce 90 per cent enriched uranium ... Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build one."

In exchange for respite from economic sanctions, Iran had earlier agreed to limit its uranium enrichment activities, which lead to the development of nuclear weapons, under the terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement, which Donald Trump abandoned when he was US president, in 2018. Tehran began breaking these nuclear constraints of the agreement in response to Washington’s exit and its reimposition of severe sanctions.

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Kharrazi asserted that Iran would never agree to concessions from the West and its Middle Eastern allies about its development of ballistic missiles and regional strategy, according to a report in Reuters.

Watch |Joe Biden: Do not want Iran to get nuclear weapons, force will be 'our last resort'

The demand from Tehran that Washington provides assurances that no future American president will renege on the agreement in the manner as Trump caused the talks to break down.

After 11 months of indirect negotiations between Tehran and Biden’s administration in Vienna, the general framework of a resurrected deal was virtually agreed upon in March. Since the nuclear agreement is a political understanding and not a legally binding treaty, Biden is unable to make this commitment.

As per Kharrazi, the potential of any agreement is destroyed because the US has not given assurances about upholding the nuclear deal.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Vinod Janardhanan

Vinod Janardhanan, PhD writes on international affairs, defence, Indian news, entertainment and technology and business with special focus on artificial intelligence. He is the de...Read More