Israeli Minister: Iran has 6 months to produce enough materials for a nuclear weapon

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said today, Tuesday, that Iran has about 6 months to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, which is longer than US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expected.

In an interview with the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation, Steinitz said, "With regard to enrichment, they can reach the sufficient quantity within half a year if they do all that is necessary .. With regard to nuclear weapons, the period is about a year or two."

The Israeli minister added that the administration of former US President Donald Trump had already done damage to the Iranian nuclear program.

The Israeli Jerusalem Post newspaper said that the Israeli minister's statements reveal that Iran has a longer time than the US Secretary of State thought to produce nuclear weapon materials.

Blinken said yesterday in a press statement that Iran is a few weeks away from producing materials used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons if it continues not to abide by the nuclear agreement, adding that his country is ready to return to the nuclear agreement if Tehran returns to abide by it.

Blinken had said the day before assuming his post in the new administration last month, that the time that Iran might need to enrich uranium to the degree of purity required to build a nuclear weapon "has decreased from more than a year (according to the nuclear agreement) to about 3 or 4 months. ".

Israel is concerned about the intention of the US President Joe Biden's administration to return to the nuclear agreement concluded with Iran in 2015, and has long opposed the agreement, while the Biden administration says that the withdrawal of the previous administration from the agreement had negative consequences and pushed Iran to abandon its obligations to restrict its nuclear activities.

On the other hand, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that his country is waiting for practical action from Washington regarding the nuclear agreement, adding, "The return of the United States to the nuclear agreement will not be easy to withdraw from it. They left the agreement with one signature, but they cannot return with a similar signature." .