Iran says it is able to make a nuclear bomb - but has not yet decided to build one

An Iranian special advisor has said the country has the "technical capacity" to create a nuclear bomb, but hasn't decided whether it wants to or not

Iran is able to make a nuclear bomb, but has not yet decided to whether to do so, a special advisor has claimed.

Kamal Kharrazi, a close aid to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei earlier today declared Tehran is "technically capable" of making the weapon of mass destruction, but is choosing not to make one right now.

"In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60 per cent and we can easily produce 90 per cent enriched uranium," he told Al Jazeera's Arabic service.

"Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build one."

In 2018, former USPresident Donald Trump ditched Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, under which Iran curbed its uranium enrichment work, a potential pathway to nuclear weapons, in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

About a year into Trump's "maximum pressure" policy on Iran, Tehran started violating the pact's nuclear restrictions.

Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons, saying it is refining uranium only for civilian energy uses.

The country said its breaches of the international deal are reversible if the US lifts sanctions and re-joins the agreement.

Indirect talks between Iran and President Joe Biden's administration, aimed at bringing both Washington and Tehran back into compliance with the nuclear pact, have been stalled since March.

Kharrazi said Tehran would never negotiate over its missile programme and regional policy, as demanded by the West and its allies in the Middle East.