US fears Iran could develop a nuclear weapon within weeks
The US government is concerned that Iran could be capable of developing nuclear weapons in a matter of weeks. "Yes, we are definitely concerned," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. The statement came just hours after Joe Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that Iran has accelerated its nuclear programme.
Psaki also commented during the daily press briefing that since the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, Iran has increased its nuclear weapons capability. "Iran has rapidly accelerated its nuclear programme and reduced cooperation with international inspectors," she said. Psaki and Blinken blame former president Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal for Iran's nuclear progress. According to both members of Joe Biden's administration, the deal helped increase the time it takes Iran to acquire a new nuclear weapon. "Since the Trump Administration seized US participation in the deal, Iran has rapidly accelerated its nuclear programme and reduced cooperation with international inspectors in failing to meet Iran's nuclear deal commitments," said Psaki.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Tehran on Monday called for a meeting "as soon as possible" to establish a new agreement on Iran's nuclear programme. For a year, the Iranian government has been negotiating in Vienna with China, Russia, the UK, France and Germany to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, signed in 2015. The aim of the JCPOA was that Iran would not obtain the atomic bomb in exchange for suspending the sanctions that Western countries had imposed on its economy. However, Iran has been relaxing its commitment to the deal since the US unilaterally exited the agreement in 2018.
Negotiations in Vienna have resolved most of the stumbling blocks facing negotiations between the major nuclear powers, but since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February the talks have stalled, with some states raising seemingly insurmountable issues. Vladimir Putin's government demands that the sanctions imposed on his country in connection with the invasion of Ukraine do not affect the Kremlin's trade relations with Iran. For its part, the Ayatollahs' regime is demanding that the US remove the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran's elite army, from its "list of terrorist organisations". This demand, which is officially unrelated to the agreement, has become one of the most difficult points to address when it comes to reaching a new pact in the Austrian capital. On this Iranian request the US diplomatic spokesman stated last week that if Iran wants sanctions that transcend the original content of the JCPOA to be lifted, it will have to demonstrate commitment beyond the JCPOA.
As a sign of its commitment to recovering the agreement signed in 2015 with the major powers, Iran said on 6 April that its government had sent documents on its hitherto undeclared nuclear facilities to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "We delivered the documents we were supposed to send to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on 20 March," said Mohamed Eslami, the head of Iran's nuclear energy agency, at a press conference in Tehran.
Americas Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra
