Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday rejected allegations by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Tehran could be "weeks away" from developing enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb.
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Speaking to NBC News, Blinken said that if Iran continued to violate the 2015 deal at the current rate, it could be "a matter of weeks" before it gets enough fissile material that, in turn, would allow it to build a nuclear weapon within months.
He said he was basing his projections on public reports, adding that the timeline would get "more acute" if Iran breaches the deal further.
"Now, the fissile material is one thing. Having a weapon that they can actually detonate and use is another," Blinken said, according to a transcript of the interview released by the State Department. He noted that the US would be willing to once again comply with the 2015 nuclear deal if Iran does the same.
The US would then strive to craft a "longer and stronger" deal with allies that would include issues such as Iran's development of advanced missile technology and its deployment of armed groups throughout the Middle East.
Zarif rejected the assertion, telling CNN, "I think that is a statement of concern that is more addressed to the public opinion than to reality," the foreign minister said.
"Iran does not seek a nuclear weapon. If we wanted to build a nuclear weapon, we could have done it some time ago, but we decided that nuclear weapons would not augment our security and are in contradiction to our ideological views."
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