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Washington — President Trump is pressuring Iran to both curtail its nuclear program or face potential army strikes, grappling with a difficulty that has vexed presidents from each events for many years.
Iran — which denies any nuclear weapons ambitions — has amassed a rising stockpile of uranium that’s enriched to close the extent of purity crucial to construct a bomb. Mr. Trump ordered strikes on a trio of key Iranian nuclear websites final June, however now, lower than a yr later, the president has instructed army motion is on the desk once more.
“They can not have nuclear weapons. Quite simple,” Mr. Trump mentioned Thursday, including that he needs a “substantial” cope with Iran, in any other case “unhealthy issues will occur.”
The U.S. and Iran have engaged in oblique negotiations in current weeks, as a fleet of U.S. naval vessels and army plane arrived within the Center East.
Mr. Trump indicated Thursday that his timeline to achieve a deal on Iran’s nuclear program is 10 to fifteen days. He has not made a last determination on whether or not to strike Iran, CBS Information has reported.
Listed here are some particulars on Iran’s nuclear program:
How shut is Iran to creating a nuclear weapon, and is it constructing one proper now?
In recent times, Iran has quickly elevated its stockpile of extremely enriched uranium. As of mid-June 2025, shortly earlier than the U.S.’s strikes, Iran had enriched some 972 kilos of uranium as much as 60% purity, in line with estimates from the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company.
By comparability, Iran had 605.8 kilos of 60%-enriched uranium in February 2025, and 267.9 kilos a yr earlier than that, the IAEA has mentioned.
That materials is only a quick step away from weapons-grade 90%-enriched uranium.
The U.S. Protection Intelligence Company estimated final Might that it could take Iran “in all probability lower than one week” to provide sufficient weapons-grade uranium to make its first bomb, if it determined to take action. Truly constructing a bomb might take considerably longer: One other intelligence abstract from final yr discovered that Iran might make a nuclear machine inside three to eight months except it confronted technical or logistical delays, CBS Information has beforehand reported.
What’s not clear, nevertheless, is whether or not Iran has made the choice to construct a nuclear weapon. Iran is believed to have halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, and the U.S. intelligence neighborhood assessed final spring that this system hadn’t restarted.
“Iran virtually actually is just not producing nuclear weapons, however Iran has undertaken actions lately that higher place it to provide them, if it chooses to take action,” the DIA mentioned in Might.
Requested on Feb. 18 whether or not the U.N.’s Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company had seen any indication that Iran may at the moment be working to develop a nuclear weapon, the company’s director common Rafael Grossi informed a French tv community it had not.
“No,” he informed TF1, including: “Quite the opposite, I see, right this moment, a willingness on either side to achieve an settlement,” referring to the U.S. and Iran.
Iran, for its half, has lengthy insisted that its nuclear program is completely peaceable, and that it doesn’t intend to develop a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s stockpile consists of uranium enriched far past the extent wanted for many non-military makes use of like nuclear energy or medical functions. The IAEA mentioned in Might that Iran is now “the one non-nuclear-weapon State to provide such nuclear materials.”
What affect did the final U.S. strikes on Iran have?
Final June’s airstrikes focused Iran’s Fordo and Natanz enrichment services and a analysis web site close to the town of Isfahan. It is not clear how a lot the strikes broken Iran’s nuclear program.
Mr. Trump has lengthy mentioned the strikes “obliterated” the three nuclear websites, setting again this system by “mainly many years.”
The IAEA’s Grossi informed CBS Information in June that the strikes brought on “extreme injury” however not “complete injury.”
In his interview with the French community, Grossi mentioned Iran’s nuclear materials was “nonetheless there, in massive portions,” regardless of the U.S. strikes, although “a few of it might be much less accessible.”
Satellite tv for pc photographs from late January present roofs constructed over broken buildings on the Natanz and Isfahan websites, probably indicating efforts by Iran to salvage any remaining supplies.
The IAEA says it withdrew its inspectors from Iran for security causes shortly after the June strikes, and Iran moved to droop cooperation with the company the next month. The company mentioned in November that it had been in a position to conduct some inspections within the months following the assaults, however not at any of the websites that have been struck by U.S. forces.
Iran downplayed the strikes, arguing that they did not remove its technological capabilities.
“Sure, you destroyed the services, the machines,” Iranian International Minister Abbas Araghchi informed Fox Information final month. “However the expertise can’t be bombed, and the dedication additionally can’t be bombed.”
What is the historical past of Iran’s nuclear program?
Iran’s nuclear program dates again many years, with some early analysis exercise going down underneath the U.S.-allied authorities that managed the nation earlier than the 1979 Islamic Revolution. By the mid-Eighties, Iran began growing — or buying on the black market — the expertise required to construct centrifuges that may enrich uranium, in line with the IAEA.
The nation’s ambitions drew intense worldwide stress beginning in 2002, when an anti-regime group alleged that Iran had secretly constructed a pair of nuclear services. Former President George W. Bush’s administration later alleged that Iran was working to develop missiles able to carrying nuclear weapons.
The IAEA has mentioned that till 2003, Iran had a “structured program” to hold out “actions which are related to the event of a nuclear explosive machine.” The company added that a few of these actions have army and non-military makes use of, however some “are particular to nuclear weapons.”
Whereas the U.S. intelligence evaluation was that Iran stopped attempting to develop nuclear weapons in 2003, the nation resumed enriching uranium at numerous factors after that. Consequently, it had confronted years of more and more tight sanctions.
In 2015, President Barack Obama’s administration struck a cope with Iran and different world powers to restrict the nation’s uranium stockpiles and enrichment capability for a set time period, and to submit Iran’s nuclear program to IAEA monitoring, in trade for sanctions reduction. The settlement was often called the Joint Complete Plan of Motion, or JCPOA.
Three years later, Mr. Trump withdrew the U.S. unilaterally from that deal, which he argued was inadequate. He imposed a brand new spherical of harsh sanctions, dubbing it a “most stress” marketing campaign to drive Iran to barter a brand new settlement. Efforts by the Biden administration and European events to the JCPOA to revive the deal have been unsuccessful.
Since then, Iran has stopped abiding by the phrases of that settlement, dramatically ramping up its uranium enrichment program, together with by enriching uranium to 60% purity for the primary time.
Araghchi informed CBS Information shortly after final yr’s strikes that Iran would “not simply again down from enrichment,” declaring this system “a matter of nationwide delight and glory.”
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