McKenzie: Iran "Very Close" to Building Nuclear Weapon
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The head of US Central Command General Kenneth McKenzie says the Iranians were able to develop high-precision missiles over the last years.
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McKenzie: Iranians were able to develop high-precision missiles over the last years.
Iran is "very close" to being able to build a nuclear weapon, General Kenneth McKenzie, head of US Central Command, told Time Magazine just days before the resumption of the Vienna talks.
"They’re very close this time. I think they like the idea of being able to break out," McKenzie said in an interview.
Since April, Vienna has been hosting talks aimed at preventing the 2015 nuclear agreement from failing.
The talks are set to resume on 29 November after a months-long hiatus. The US will not take part in this round of negotiations.
But Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, Ali Bagheri Kani, said the new round of negotiations in Vienna will not discuss Iran's nuclear program and confirmed that the main focus is to lift the "unlawful and unjust" sanctions imposed on Iranian people.
McKenzie pointed out that the Central Command has a variety of plans that can be executed in case Tehran acquired a nuclear weapon.
He estimated that it will take Iran more than a year to design a nuclear warhead that can be affixed atop any of its arsenal of 3,000 ballistic missiles.
The General mentioned that the Islamic Republic has not yet developed a reentry vehicle capable of going through extremely high temperatures, pressure, and vibration when falling from space back to Earth.
However, he confirmed that Iranians were able to develop high-precision missiles over the last years.
“Those missiles hit within tens of meters of their targets. The one thing the Iranians have done over the last three to five years is they built a very capable ballistic missile platform,” he admitted.
