Reuters, Vienna, 18 June 2014 – A U.S. security institute estimates that Iran could amass material for a nuclear bomb in three months or less while Iranian experts cite a time frame six times longer – a dispute going to the heart of talks between Tehran and global powers.
Differences over how fast Iran could “break out” a nuclear weapon complicate the quest for a deal by late July under which Iran would scale back its atomic energy programme in exchange for a lifting of crippling sanctions.
With only some five weeks to go before the self-imposed July 20 deadline for a deal, the negotiating positions between Tehran and the United States, France, Germany, Russia, China and Britain remain far apart. A fifth round of talks since February is being held in Vienna this week.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said that Iran has the ability to produce highly-enriched uranium for one bomb in two months, if it so decided.
Western officials and experts say this potential timeline must be substantially extended under any deal to end the decade-old nuclear dispute.
NUCLEAR BREAKOUT “MYTH”
The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a U.S.-based think-tank which closely monitors Iran’s atomic activities, said on Wednesday that the Iranian website “expresses common government stances” on nuclear issues.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the country’s chief nuclear negotiator, criticized what he called the breakout “myth”.
If Iran ever wanted to take such a step, he said, it would have to expel U.N. nuclear inspectors and reconfigure its enrichment program to make weapon-grade fissile material, which would then need to be turned into metal and “undergo countless other complex weaponization processes”.
