Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a matter of months, a senior defense official claims

Iran would be months away from building a nuclear weapon if it chose to produce a bomb, according to a senior US military official.

“From the moment of an Iranian decision … Iran could produce fissile material for a nuclear weapon in less than two weeks and it would take only a few more months to produce an actual nuclear weapon,” said General Mark Milley , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. , he told Congress on Thursday.

Milley presented a much shorter timetable than officials previously had when discussing Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

He added that the US will not allow Iran to have a “nuclear weapon in the field”.

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“We, the United States military, have developed multiple options for our national leadership to consider if, or when, Iran ever decides to develop an actual nuclear weapon,” Milley said.

Officials remain concerned about Iran’s nuclear capabilities after attempts to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, from which the US withdrew during the Trump administration in 2018

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Unnamed senior diplomats told Bloomberg in February that Iran has stockpiled uranium enriched to 84 percent purity, a concentration 6 percent below what is needed for a weapon, marking the highest levels found by inspectors in Iran so far.

Iran had previously told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that its centrifuges were configured to enrich uranium to a purity level of 60%.

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It is still unclear whether the material was produced intentionally or was an unintentional build-up inside the centrifuges used to separate the isotopes.

The timeline for creating a nuclear weapon remains unclear, with some experts believing it could take anywhere from six months to three years, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Gary Samore, director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University and a former White House official during the Obama administration, told the Journal that no one can say “how quickly Iran can restart and finish the research and development work they were doing before 2003”.

Col. Dave Butler, a spokesman for Gen. Milley, declined to elaborate on his assessment of Congress, telling the Journal that “the president’s statement speaks for itself.”

Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz contributed to this report.

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