VIENNA: The United States said yesterday that Iran has the ability to produce fissile material for a nuclear bomb in two months, if it so decided, as Tehran and six world powers swung into a new round of talks in Vienna on resolving their atomic dispute.
Secretary of State John Kerry’s comments in Washington highlighted Western concerns about Iran’s nuclear intentions and the wide divisions between the two sides that could still foil a deal. Iran says its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.
The over-arching goal of the powers — Britain, France, China, Russia, Germany and the United States — in the talks is to persuade Iran to scale back its programme to the point that it would take it much longer, perhaps as much as a year, to produce fuel for a bomb if it chose to do so.
“I think it’s public knowledge today that we’re operating with a time period for a so-called ‘break-out’ of about two months. That’s been in the public domain,” Kerry testified at a Senate hearing.
Iran’s “break-out” time is defined as how long it would take it to produce fissile material for one nuclear weapon, if it decided to build such weapons of mass destruction.
To lengthen this potential timeline, the powers want Iran to cut back the number of centrifuges it operates refine uranium and the overall amount of enriched uranium it produces, as well as to limit its research into new technologies and submit to invasive inspections by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.
The Islamic Republic says its nuclear fuel-making activity is only for peaceful purposes such as electricity generation, and it wants the West to lift crippling economic sanctions as part of any final accord with the powers.
Reuters
