Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said Friday that his country “never has hope” in the nuclear negotiations with world powers.
“We put our hopes in the east, west, north, south of our country and never have hope in Vienna and New York,” Raisi said in a televised speech as the country marked the 43rd anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran has been negotiating with world powers over reviving a 2015 nuclear deal, which offered Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
Former US president Donald Trump withdrew the US from the deal in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, and in response, Iran gradually reneged on its commitments.
On Friday, pro-regime forces gathered to celebrate the anniversary of Islamic Revolution chanting “death to America” and “death to Israel”.
The US believes Iran could have enough fissile material to build a nuclear weapon within weeks if it wants to, lawmakers were told in a closed-door briefing this week.
Senator Chris Murphy described the briefing to reporters as “sobering and shocking.”
“If Iran chose to seek a nuclear weapon today, they likely only need 60 days to develop the fuel to do so,” he wrote in an op-ed published by Time magazine Thursday, which linked to a Politico article reporting on the assessment that Iran was weeks away from having enough fuel.
“That is a scary reality for our friends in the Middle East, especially Israel,” he added.
