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A senior Iranian advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader has publicly stated that the country now has the technical capability to build a nuclear weapon as regional concerns continue to escalate over the country’s nuclear activities. He also claimed the return of Iran to the nuclear deal is highly unlikely and threatened a “direct response” to Israel and other regional states if they threatened Iran’s security.
Kamal Kharazi, the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, stated: “In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium … Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build one”. Kharazi also claimed that Iran has already conducted training exercises to strike at Israel, if the country targets Iran’s “sensitive facilities”.
Negotiations to return Iran to a renewed JCPOA agreement have stalled over the last few months, with Kharazi claiming it is highly unlikely as Tehran does not believe Washington can be trusted to remain in the agreement. He also called any inclusion of Iran’s missile programme in the deal a “surrender” and one which would be rejected completely by Iran.
Additionally, Kharazi commented on President Biden’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, stating that the Jerusalem Declaration, signed between the U.S. and Israel last week, will not produce any significant changes. He claimed that Israel “is in a phase of weakness” and that any attempt to organise defensive cooperation between Middle Eastern countries against Iran “will be met with a response to these countries and a direct response to Israel”.
