Iran has the technical capability to build an atomic bomb but has no intention of doing so, Mohammad Eslami, head of the country’s atomic energy agency, said today, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
Eslami was echoing comments made by Kamal Harazi, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in July.
Harazi’s comments hinted that the Islamic Republic may have an interest in nuclear weapons, which Tehran has long denied it seeks.
“As Mr. Harazi noted, Iran has the technical capability to build an atomic bomb, but such a program is not on the agenda,” Eslami said.
Iran is already enriching uranium to 60 percent, well above the 3.67 percent limit set under the 2015 nuclear deal Tehran signed with major powers. 90% enriched uranium is suitable for making a nuclear bomb.
In 2018, former US President Donald Trump withdrew his country from the deal, under which Iran curbed its uranium enrichment work, a potential path to nuclear weapons, in exchange for easing international economic sanctions.
Iran has responded to a proposal by the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, to save the nuclear deal, and is seeking a quick conclusion to the negotiations, Iran’s most senior nuclear negotiator said on Sunday.
Borrell said he has proposed a new draft text to revive the agreement.
“After we exchanged messages last week and reviewed the proposed texts, there is a possibility that in the near future we will be able to reach a conclusion on the date of a new round of negotiations on the nuclear program,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani.
The broad outline of a revival of the deal was essentially agreed in March after 11 months of indirect talks in Vienna between Tehran and the administration of US President Joe Biden.
But the talks have since stalled over new hurdles, including Tehran’s demand that Washington give guarantees that no US president will abandon the deal, as Trump has done.
Biden can’t promise that because the nuclear deal is a non-binding political agreement, not a legally binding treaty.
Source: AMPE
Source: Capital
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