Pentagon predicts nukes

(RT) ⸻ Iran is just 12 days away from making enough uranium for an atomic bomb, the Pentagon's top policy official told Congress on Tuesday. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl was asked about the defunct nuclear deal with Iran while testifying at a House Armed Services Committee hearing about arming Ukraine. According to a "confidential" IAEA report, inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog had allegedly discovered traces of uranium "particles" enriched up to 83.7% in Iran's underground Fordo nuclear site, but no signs of Tehran actually stockpiling it. Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), previously dismissed a similar report by Bloomberg as "slander and a distortion of the facts." The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed by Iran, China, Russia, the US, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the EU in 2015. In May 2018, US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement and reimposed sanctions unilaterally. The Joe Biden administration has attempted to revive the deal, but has been unwilling to lift the sanctions or provide Iran with guarantees it would not violate the agreement again. Negotiations have been stalled since August 2022. On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that the US had sent a message via the Iraqi foreign minister that Washington was "ready to conclude an agreement." Iran was willing as long as any settlement respected the Islamic Republic's "red lines," noting again that it was the US that reneged on the deal.