Iran is already capable of producing nuclear weapons, the country’s Supreme Leader said Sunday, claiming that Tehran has yet to decide whether it wants to build one.
Kamal Kharazi, a top adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, spoke with Al Jazeera in an interview published Sunday afternoon, telling the Arabic outlet that Iran’s nuclear program is already capable of producing uranium at 90% enrichment.
“In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium,” Kharazi said. “Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build it.”
Kharazi warned that Tehran would retaliate against any attack by Israel on its nuclear facilities, claiming that Iran has conducted “extensive maneuvers with the aim of striking Israel hard if our sensitive facilities are targeted.”
In the interview, Kharazi, who leads Iran’s Strategic Council for Foreign Policies, also claimed that Israel “is in a phase of weakness,” saying that President Joe Biden’s support for the Jewish state “will not bring it back to the fore.”
Turning to Biden’s visits to Israel and Saudi Arabia, and efforts to coalescence opposition to Iran with the Negev Forum, Kharazi dismissed what he dubbed the “Middle Eastern NATO”, calling the idea “superficial” and expressing skepticism that Saudi Arabia would ally itself with Israel.
“The Jerusalem Declaration is just a repeated statement that will not have any results,” Kharazi said of the document signed jointly by Biden and Prime Minister Yair Lapid last week.