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US Military Commander General Mark Milley said his party had prepared several options if Iran developed nuclear weapons. Photo/REUTERS/Johanna Geron
WASHINGTON – Military United States of America (US) has several if options Iran decided to develop nuclear bomb . This was conveyed by US Military Commander General Mark Milley to Parliament in Washington, Thursday.
General Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Parliamentary Appropriations Committee hearing that Iran could produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon in less than two weeks, after which it would take several more months to develop a nuclear weapon.
Other US officials have offered similar estimates of Iran’s so-called “runaway time” to produce enough enriched uranium for a single nuclear bomb, which was about a year when the 2015 nuclear deal took effect.
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said last month that it would take Iran about 12 days to collect one nuclear bomb’s worth of fissile material.
“The United States remains committed as a policy that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” General Milley told members of Parliament, as quoted by Reuters, Friday (24/3/2023).
“We, the United States military, have developed several options for our national leadership to consider whether or when Iran decides to develop a true nuclear weapon,” he said.
Iran has repeatedly stated that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
But the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said last month that its inspectors had detected particles of uranium enriched to 83.7% purity at the Fordow site, an underground site in Iran.
To reach weapons grade, uranium must be enriched to 90% purity.
