US: Iran talks reveal uranium equivalent to 11 bombs
Washington : Tehran possessed enough highly enriched uranium for “11 bombs worth of nuclear material,” the White House claimed, arguing that the findings from recent talks helped shape President Donald Trump’s decision to launch military action against Iranian nuclear facilities.
According to a senior Trump Administration Official, familiar with the recent rounds of negotiations with Iran, Tehran currently holds about 10,000 kilograms of enriched uranium across multiple facilities, including 460 kilograms enriched to 60 per cent purity — material he described as dangerously close to weapons-grade.
“Our 460 kilograms of 60 per cent is very, very close to the 90 per cent enrichment level that would qualify it as weapons grade,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “And we know, and you know, and the Europeans know that that is essentially 11 bombs’ worth of nuclear material.”
Two Senior Trump Administration Officials, familiar with the three rounds of negotiations with Iran, which collapsed last week, asserted that the talks convinced them that Tehran was delaying diplomacy while preserving key components of its nuclear programme.
The second Senior Trump Administration Official said the Iranian delegation repeatedly avoided presenting a detailed proposal during negotiations and appeared to be seeking time.
“It was very clear they were just trying to buy time in order to preserve whatever they could… to get to a nuclear weapon,” the official said.
According to the Senior Trump Administration Official, Iran’s stockpile included roughly 1,000 kilograms of uranium enriched to 20 per cent and about 8,500 kilograms enriched to 3.67 per cent — levels that could potentially be further refined to weapons-grade material.
“To break out from a 3.67 enrichment level and get to 90 per cent weapons grade could be in the neighbourhood of two and a half to three months,” the official said, adding that material already enriched to 60 per cent could reach weapons grade in “maybe a week, maybe at most 10 days.”
US negotiators said one of the most troubling discoveries during the talks involved the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR). Iranian officials claimed the facility was producing medical isotopes for civilian use, but American negotiators said the explanation did not match the available data.
The official said analysis during the meeting suggested Iran had accumulated a “seven to eight years supply of fuel” at the reactor and was not producing isotopes as claimed.
“We discovered… that they basically had not been making any radioisotopes, and the seven to eight years supply of fuel that they had been retaining… was being stockpiled,” the official said.
The official said Iran had also insisted that uranium enrichment was its “inalienable right,” rejecting a US offer to provide nuclear fuel for civilian reactors.
“We’ll give you free nuclear fuel for as long as you want, at no cost,” the second Administration Official recalled proposing during talks, adding that Iranian officials rejected the offer, saying it would be “an assault on our dignity.”
Officials argued that these developments convinced the US administration that Iran’s programme retained the building blocks needed to produce nuclear weapons quickly.
“They basically offered us a lot of political wins… but they were unwilling to give up the building blocks of what they needed to preserve in order to get to a bomb,” the second Senior Trump Administration official said.
The officials said Iran also resisted transparency measures, including allowing inspectors to take a proposed nuclear framework back for technical review.
The briefing came as Washington continues military operations against Iranian nuclear infrastructure following what the administration described as intelligence indicating Tehran’s programme was nearing a dangerous threshold.
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, while Western governments have accused it of pursuing the capability to develop nuclear weapons.
