Blinken Says Iran Could Cut Nuclear Breakout Time To Weeks If Keeps Violating Deal

By Donald Standeford, Correspondent
Date Published: June 12th, 2021 07:20PM UTC
Last Modified: June 12th, 2021 07:20PM UTC

TEHRAN - U.S. Secretary of State Blinken says that Iran could cut the nuclear breakout time, or time to amass enough fissile material to create a nuclear weapon to just weeks if it keeps violating the 2015 nuclear accord limiting its nuclear program.

Blinken testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee stating, "Its program is galloping forward… The longer this goes on, the more the breakout time gets down… it’s now down, by public reports, to a few months at best. And if this continues, it will get down to a matter of weeks".

Blinken also stated, "There are multiple egregious activities that Iran is engaged in… Each and every one would be even worse if Iran had a nuclear weapon or was on the threshold of being able to have one".

While the Trump administration pulled out of the nuclear deal with Iran in 2018, stating that the the deal did not do enough to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, the Biden administration has attempted to resume talks with little success in obtaining Iran's compliance.

Blinken commented, "It remains unclear whether Iran is willing and prepared to do what it needs to do come back into compliance".

In the case that Iran does acquire nuclear weapon capability they could use their current ballistic missile technology to deliver the payload, or naval vessels equipped with cruise missiles.