Iran’s nuclear chief is warning that the country has the “technical ability” to produce an atomic bomb but reiterated previous remarks by Iranian officials that the country has no intention of doing so, despite social media accounts linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that threaten to produce nuclear warheads for missiles.
Mohammad Eslami, head of the country’s atomic energy organization, made the comments on Aug. 1, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
Eslami echoed comments made last month by Kamal Kharrazi, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who stated that Iran has the technical means to build a nuclear bomb, but “there has been no decision by Iran to build one.”
Failed Negotiations
However, President Joe Biden’s administration hopes to entice Iran back to the agreement in an effort to constrain the country from bolstering its nuclear program; a broad outline of a revived deal was essentially agreed in March.Talks between the two nations, albeit indirect, have so far proven unsuccessful, because of conflicts over Tehran’s demand that Washington provides guarantees that no U.S. president will abandon the deal in the future, something that Biden can’t promise because the nuclear deal is a non-binding political understanding and not a legally binding treaty.
Ali Bagheri, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, wrote: “We shared our proposed ideas, both on substance and form, to pave the way for a swift conclusion of Vienna negotiations” and that “we work closely with our JCPOA partners, in particular the Coordinator, to give another chance to the U.S. to demonstrate good faith & act responsibly.”
Renewed Threats
Eslami’s comments came after Telegram channels linked to the IRGC issued statements on July 30 threatening to produce nuclear warheads for missiles.The video also states that Iran’s ballistic missiles could turn “New York into hellish ruins” and that “the nuclear facilities of Fordow [fuel enrichment plant] have been built deep under mountains of Iran and are protected against trench-busting bombs and even nuclear explosion ... all infrastructures required for nuclear breakout have been prepared in it,” according to Iran International.
The outlet reported that the video also states that the facilities at Natanz uranium enrichment site “may be highly vulnerable to a possible attack by Western powers and Israel” but that “Fordow will immediately assume war footing and begin the nuclear breakout project within a short time if Natanz comes under missile attack.”