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CIA director: Iran’s enriched uranium program very close to nuclear weapon level

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) -The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) stated Sunday that Iran had advanced its nuclear program so far now that it could enrich uranium to the 90% purity required for an atomic bomb within weeks, CBS News reports.

CIA Director William Burns gave his assessment during an exclusive interview with CBS on “Face the Nation.”

While emphasizing that the CIA has no information that Iran is making a nuclear weapon, Burns said the rate at which Tehran’s nuclear enrichment program is growing is worrying. “They’ve advanced very far to the point where it would only be a matter of weeks before they can enrich to 90%, if they chose to cross that line. In terms of their missile systems, their ability to deliver a nuclear weapon, once they developed it, has also been advancing as well.”

“To the best of our knowledge, we don’t believe that the Supreme Leader in Iran has yet made a decision to resume the weaponization program that we judge that they suspended or stopped at the end of 2003,” Burns added. “But the other two legs of the stool, meaning enrichment programs, they’ve obviously advanced very far.”

Uranium enriched to 90% purity can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons, CBS noted. Bloomberg reported last week that Iran now possesses uranium at 84% purity.

According to CBS, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is aware of the concerns and is set to discuss them with Iran.