After Report That Iran Can Build 5 Nuclear Bombs, Top Biden Adviser Calls for Resumption of Talks With Regime

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks to reporters during a briefing in Washington on March 22, 2022. Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images

National security adviser Jake Sullivan called on May 4 for the resumption of negotiations with Iran in response to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s warning that Iran has enough material to build five nuclear bombs.

“While one Iranian arm spreads weapons and [terrorist] proxies, the other continues its program to obtain nuclear military capabilities. And make no mistake—Iran will not be satisfied with a single nuclear bomb,” said Gallant in Athens, Greece, on May 4.

“So far, Iran has gained material enriched to 20 percent and 60 percent for five nuclear bombs.

“Iranian progress and enrichment to 90 percent would be a grave mistake on Iran’s part and could ignite the region,” he added.

When asked in a Q&A, following his keynote to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Soref Symposium, about that claim, Sullivan said that it is a reminder of the need to resume talks about Iran’s nuclear program.

“The best way to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is an effective agreement that stops them from getting a nuclear weapon,” Sullivan said.

Indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran, with the Europeans going back and forth between the parties, have been on an indefinite pause since last year due to last-minute demands from Tehran and Moscow that were rejected by the United States. The United States withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions lifted under it alongside enacting fresh sanctions against Iran.

Sullivan lamented the withdrawal, which happened under then-President Donald Trump.

He claimed that “before the JCPOA, Iran was also sitting on multiple bombs’ worth of lower-enriched-grade uranium, and the JCPOA forced them to basically get rid of all of that. And we should get back to a deal in which—whether it’s five bombs or whatever it may be of 60 percent—that also goes by the board.”

Sullivan said the United States “will take the necessary action to ensure that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon.

“Now, you know, some part of me is sort of like, ‘They’re accumulating enriched uranium; they would not be accumulating enriched uranium if we were still in the deal; they are because we’re not in the deal,’” he added.

“So it’s a kind of strange position for me to be in to kind of defend a strategy of being out of the deal when, you know, I was one of the people who helped kind of pave the way for it in the first place.”