Iran Needs 'One Week' To Build Nuclear Weapon, Official Claims

A senior Iranian lawmaker has warned Tehran could make a nuclear weapon within days, adding to concerns about the consequences of escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Iran has expanded its nuclear program, reducing the time it would need to build a nuclear bomb after the erosion of a 2015 international deal to limit its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.

Tit-for-tat missile strikes between Israel and Iran have added urgency to the quest by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to uncover the nuclear intentions of Tehran, which it insists are peaceful.

Javad Karimi-Ghodousi, a former military commander and member of Iran's national security commission, said in a video on X, formerly Twitter, that his country is technically able to enrich uranium to 90 percent purity "for warheads" in "half a day or let's say, one week" and that the IAEA is "aware" of Tehran's capabilities.

He also cited the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying that his regime "will respond to threats at the same level," according to a report of his remarks in Farsi reported by Iranian journalist Khosro K Isfahani on X.

Karimi-Ghodousi also said that if the EU and the U.S. "will not bow before regime demands" not only will Iran "acquire nuclear arms, "the Islamic Republic will increase its "missile range to above 10,000 km (6,200 miles)" to target European countries, according to Isfahani's post. Newsweek has contacted the Iranian foreign ministry and the IAEA for comment.

The IAEA is set to meet senior Iranian officials in May following alarm at comments made on April 18 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander in charge of nuclear security, Ahmad Haghtalab.

Haghtalab said that "the threats of the Zionist regime (Israel) against Iran's nuclear facilities make it possible to review our nuclear doctrine," according to the Tasnim news agency, cited by Reuters.

Haghtalab did not give further details but warned an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would be reciprocated. Iran launched 300 drones and missiles on Israel earlier this month in response to an Israeli strike in Syria that killed two Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp. commanders. Israel responded with a more limited attack.

The comments by such a high-ranking Iranian official as Haghtalab "are a source of concern," IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Wednesday, according to Bloomberg. "The Middle East is in a very fragile situation."

Iran's stock of enriched uranium, which was capped at 202.8 kg under the 2015 deal, was 5.5 tonnes as of February, according to the IAEA's latest quarterly report. It said that Tehran's "breakout time" to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb is likely a matter of weeks or days.