Distraction? Blinken Says Iran Just 1-2 Weeks Away From Producing Material For A Nuclear Weapon

A well-timed distraction? Or is it real this time? The White House says Iran is on the verge of being nuclear weapons capable. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Friday that the Islamic Republic will have enough enriched uranium for producing fissile material to achieve a nuclear weapon within just "one or two weeks."

"Iran, because the nuclear agreement was thrown out, instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that," Blinken said at a forum in Colorado.

He did add a caveat, saying there's as yet no evidence Iran is actively pursuing a nuke at this point; however, the timing is interesting given the White House crisis of Biden's reelection bid, as well as the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address Congress next week.

"What we need to see, if Iran is serious about engaging, is actually pulling back on the work that it’s been doing on his program," Blinken continued.

"Second, we have been maximizing pressure on Iran across the board. We’ve imposed more than 600 sanctions on Iranian persons and entities. We haven’t lifted a single sanction," he said.

And yet the irony here is that clearly the sanctions haven't worked. While Biden and Democrats in general had long ago been frequent critics of Trump's prior "maximum pressure" campaign, in reality little has changed. 

Blinken still touted the Biden admin's record on Iran at the Aspen Security Forum, describing, "When this administration came in, we tried to pursue again, nuclear diplomacy with Iran, because if you could at least take one problem off the board, which is Iran potentially with a nuclear weapon, that’s inherently a good thing."

The White House says it has still been wielding a big stick, particularly in light of the Gaza crisis and the prior Israeli massive attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus which sent tensions spiraling. 

Axios reported earlier this week that the Biden admin's behind the scenes pressure campaign has yielded limited results: 

• The U.S. officials said the Iranians came back with a response that included explanations for these nuclear activities, stressing there has been no change in policy and they are not working on a nuclear weapon.
• The exchange of messages and other information obtained by the U.S. and Israel addressed some of the concerns and somewhat eased anxieties over the Iranian research and development activities, U.S. and Israeli officials said.
• A U.S. official said that the message the U.S. sent to the Iranians was effective, but added there are still significant concerns about the Iranian nuclear program.

Iran has grown bolder in its declarations of late, and so all of the above doesn't actually sound like "effective" diplomacy.

Without doubt, Iranian leadership is watching the US presidential race closely, given that a potential future Trump administration will be stacked with Iran hawks, as was the first.

Israel has meanwhile vowed preemptive attack if its intelligence believes Tehran is bent on developing a nuke, and if it is on the threshold. At the same time, critics of Netanyahu have alleged his hawkish position is rooted in political survival, like with his hardline Gaza policies.