Washington: The White House claimed that Tehran has enough enriched uranium to produce ‘the equivalent of 11 nuclear bombs’. The administration says that information obtained in recent conversations played an important role in President Donald Trump’s decision to take military action against Iran’s nuclear sites. A senior Trump administration official involved in recent talks with Iran said that Tehran currently has about 10,000 kilograms of enriched uranium at different locations. Of these, 460 kg uranium has been purified up to 60 percent. According to the official, this level is very close to the 90 percent purity required to make weapons.
How much uranium does Iran have?
The official said that 460 kilograms of uranium enriched at 60 percent would not take much time to reach 90 percent, and this amount of material can be considered sufficient to make about 11 nuclear bombs. Two senior officials involved in three rounds of talks with Iran said that these talks broke down last week. He says that from these conversations he felt that Iran was avoiding diplomacy and wanted to preserve important parts of its nuclear program.
What are American officials saying about the talks?
According to another senior official, the Iranian delegation never made any clear and detailed proposal during the talks and it seemed as if it was just trying to buy time. The official also said that Iran’s stockpile includes about 1,000 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 20 percent and about 8,500 kilograms up to 3.67 percent. He says that it may take about two and a half to three months to go from 3.67 percent to 90 percent, while going from 60 percent to 90 percent will probably take a week or maximum 10 days.
American negotiators also said that during the talks serious questions were raised regarding the Tehran Research Reactor. Iranian officials claimed the facility was producing medical isotopes for civilian use, but US negotiators said this explanation did not match the available data.
According to the senior official, the investigation indicated that seven to eight years of fuel was stored near the reactor and isotopes were not being produced as per the requirement. Officials say that Iran, calling uranium enrichment its ‘right’, also rejected the US proposal to provide free nuclear fuel for civilian reactors. According to another official, the American side had said that fuel would be provided without any expense for as long as needed, but Iran called it against its dignity.
Iran not ready to give up nuclear
Officials argued that these developments convinced the US administration that Iran’s program had the building blocks needed to quickly produce a nuclear weapon. He says that Iran talked about some concessions at the political level, but was not ready to give up the infrastructure required to make a nuclear bomb. Officials also alleged that Iran opposed transparency measures and showed reluctance in allowing inspectors to conduct technical reviews of the proposed nuclear structure.
This information came to light at a time when Washington is continuing military operations against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. The administration says that intelligence information indicated that Iran’s program was approaching dangerous levels. At the same time, Iran has been saying for a long time that its nuclear program is completely for peaceful purposes. However, western countries have been accusing it of working towards developing the capability to make nuclear weapons.
