Blinken: Iran can produce material for nuclear bomb in week

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Iran's ability to rapidly produce enough weapons-grade material for a nuclear weapon is “now probably one or two weeks away.”

“Iran, because the nuclear agreement was thrown out, instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that,” Blinken said.

The assessment marks the shortest breakout time that U.S. officials have ever referenced and comes as Iran has taken steps in recent months to boost its production of fissile material.

Blinken said the policy of the U.S. is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and that the administration would prefer to stop that from happening through diplomacy.

Over a year ago a top U.S. Defense Department official said that Iran could now produce “one bomb’s worth of fissile material” in “about 12 days.”