New evidence was uncovered by UN inspectors indicating that Iran is engaged in undeclared nuclear activities, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday citing three diplomats. The evidence brings into question the scope of Iran's nuclear plans, the newspaper said.
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Tuesday it would take Iran around six months to produce enough fissile material for a single nuclear weapon.
Israel is wary of the Biden administration's intent to reenter the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal and has long opposed the agreement. Washington argues that the previous Trump administration's withdrawal from the deal backfired by prompting Iran to abandon caps on nuclear activities.
Iran, which denies seeking nuclear weaponry, has recently accelerated its breaches of the deal, which it started violating in 2019 in response to the US withdrawal and reimposition of sanctions against it.
The last quarterly estimates by the UN nuclear watchdog in November show that Iran's stock of enriched uranium had risen to 2.4 tonnes, more than 10 times the amount allowed under the deal but still a fraction of the more than eight tonnes it had before.
Since then, Iran has started enriching uranium to higher purity, returning to the 20% it achieved before the deal from a previous maximum of 4.5%. The deal sets a limit of 3.67%, far below the 90% that is weapons grade.