The White House confirmed that the possibility of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon had reduced from a year to weeks or less, due to the withdrawal of the administration of former President Donald Trump in May 2018 from the nuclear agreement signed between Tehran and the West.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said - in response to a question about the US administration's position on Iran's approach to this stage - that the matter has become "worrying", noting that the administration of President Joe Biden keeps the Israelis informed of the course of negotiations with the Iranian side.
She added, "Certainly we are concerned that Iran is close to developing nuclear weapons, and with reference to the agreement that was concluded with it, Iran's nuclear program has been severely restricted and monitored by international inspectors, and since the Trump administration decided to withdraw our participation from the agreement, Iran has accelerated its nuclear program and reduced cooperation with international inspectors. Failure to fulfill the obligations stipulated in the transaction.
Yesterday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced - during his testimony in Congress - that the period needed by Iran to produce a nuclear weapon had shrunk from about a year to a few weeks or less.
Blinken explained that Washington's withdrawal from the agreement "certainly directly affected that, and made us less safe and less visible, and that's one of the reasons we followed the diplomatic path when President Biden took office."
new world order
On the other hand, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that the war in Ukraine is not just a war on another country, considering - during a speech to representatives of Iranian university students - that the world today "is on the cusp of forming a new world order and that Tehran must participate in this system." to defend its security and interests.
Khamenei pointed out that "the world is no longer dominated by a unipolar regime and that America is no longer at the head of the world," as he put it.
Regarding the situation in Palestine, the Iranian guide said that believing that normalization with the Zionist entity is in the interest of the Palestinians is a grave mistake, indicating that normalization will harm the printing states and the Palestinians and that it will not even benefit the Israelis, as he put it.
Khamenei also accused Israel of committing what he described as "crimes" in Palestine and the Al-Aqsa Mosque with American and European support, criticizing what he called the "misdoing" of some Islamic countries towards Palestine.