• Figure is a dramatic fall from a year ago when it was said it would take 12 months
  • Meanwhile, new report suggests UN’s nuclear watchdog found uranium particles enriched up to 83.7 percent in Iran’s underground Fordo nuclear site

Iran could make enough material for one nuclear bomb in ‘about 12 days,’ a top US Defense Department official warned on Tuesday, a dramatic fall from the estimated one year it would have taken while the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was in effect.

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl made the comment to a House of Representatives hearing when asked why US President Joe Biden‘s administration had sought to revive the the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal.

‘Because Iran’s nuclear progress since we left the JCPOA has been remarkable. Back in 2018, when the previous administration decided to leave the JCPOA it would have taken Iran about 12 months to produce one bomb’s worth of fissile material.

Fissile material is material capable of sustaining a nuclear fission chain reaction, such as some uranium. ‘Now it would take about 12 days [to produce enough],’ Kahl, the third highest ranking official in the US Defence Department, told lawmakers.

‘And so I think there is still the view that if you could resolve this issue diplomatically and put constraints back on their nuclear program, it is better than the other options. But right now, the JCPOA is on ice,’ Kahl added.

Another defence department official – Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Dana Stroul – described the Islamic Republic as a ‘global threat’, in particular because of its growing military alliance with Russia, whose armies are currently invading Ukraine.

‘We are now at a point where Iranian threats are no longer specific to the Middle East, but a global challenge,’ she told reporters on Tesday.

‘It is reasonable to expect that the tactics, techniques and procedures that the Iranians are learning and perfecting in Ukraine will one day come back to our partners in the Middle East, which is why we are increasing cooperation now.’

This corporation includes ‘intelligence sharing, understanding these networks and increasing our collective defensive capabilities so that we are prepared to counter these threats in the region,’ she added.

US officials have repeatedly estimated Iran’s breakout time – how long it would take to acquire the fissile material for one bomb if it decided to – at weeks.

None, however, have been as specific as Kahl was on Tuesday.

But while US officials say Iran has grown closer to producing fissile material they do not believe it has mastered the technology to actually build a bomb.

Under the 2015 deal, which then-US President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, Iran had reined in its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions.

Trump reimposed US sanctions on Iran, leading Tehran to resume previously banned nuclear work and reviving US, European and Israeli fears that Iran may seek an atomic bomb. Iran denies any such ambition.

The currently administration in the White House has tried but failed to revive the pact over the last two years.