Iran Could Build Nuclear Device in Months: FDD Deputy Director

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Transcript

00:00And Andrea, back in August 2024, you did write a piece and you said Iran was shockingly close

00:09to nuclear breakout potential. The world must act. How close is Iran to having a nuclear weapon?

00:17And in many ways, why were these warnings ignored? Well, from our estimates, they had

00:23enough enriched uranium to make up to 22 nuclear weapons and they could make that weapons grade

00:29material within five months. And there's an estimate of about six months to create a crude

00:35nuclear device. So something more rudimentary than what would go on a missile, but could be delivered

00:41via truck or plane or other ways. And I think the Israelis, from my understanding, took action now

00:49because they had seen growing indications of activities related to constructing nuclear devices

00:55among the Iranians. The U.S. differed in its interpretation overall about the urgency of

01:02that. They saw more research efforts. But the Israelis, with a country the size of New Jersey,

01:09really were not willing to wait until the Iranians put together a nuclear device

01:13and made good on their threat to possibly deliver it.