Burns said, before the security conference in Georgia, that Iran has developed its nuclear program by storing uranium enriched to levels approaching the level of weapons manufacturing, indicating that as a result, Iran can quickly obtain enough fissile material to make an atomic bomb if it chooses to do so. There will be less time for the outside world to respond.
He stressed, “We do not see evidence today that Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei has retracted the decision he took at the end of 2003 to suspend the weapons program,” noting that “it may take a week or a little more to produce a single nuclear bomb, so the risks have increased.”
Burns stated that the United States is closely monitoring Iranian nuclear activity for any sign that the regime is rushing towards manufacturing a nuclear bomb… However, we do not see evidence today of such a decision being taken,” stressing that “we are monitoring the matter very carefully.”
On the other hand, Burns saw that “Israel has achieved great tactical successes against the most important force affiliated with Iran, which is Hezbollah in Lebanon, and that the military power of Hamas has also deteriorated severely over the past year.”
But he said the difficult task now was to combine those gains on the battlefield with “smart diplomacy” to stop the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, warning that “we now face a very real danger of further regional escalation of the conflict.”
Source: nbc news
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