Blinken: Iran Close to Nuclear Weapon Material

Iran is capable of producing fissile material for use in a nuclear weapon within "one or two weeks," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

The details on Iran's capabilities emerged following the recent election of President Masoud Pezeshkian.

He has said he wants to end Iran's isolation and favors reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and global powers.

Blinken said, however, that "what we've seen in the last weeks and months is an Iran that's actually moving forward" with its nuclear program.

In 2018, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal, which was designed to regulate Iran's atomic activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.

Speaking at a security forum in Colorado, Blinken blamed the collapse of the nuclear deal for the acceleration in Iran's capabilities.

"Instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, Iran is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that," Blinken said.

He added that Iran had not yet developed a nuclear weapon.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said last month that Iran is further expanding its nuclear capacities, with Tehran informing the agency that it was installing more cascades -- or series of centrifuges used in enrichment -- at nuclear facilities in Natanz and Fordow.

According to the IAEA, Iran is the only non-nuclear weapons state to enrich uranium to the high level of 60 percent -- just short of weapons-grade -- while it keeps accumulating large uranium stockpiles, enough to build several atomic bombs, the agency says.

Following the US withdrawal, the Islamic republic has gradually broken away from its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal.

Tehran has denied the allegations.