US President Joe Biden discussed the possibility of striking Iranian nuclear facilities in December 2024, the Axios portal reported, citing its sources.
According to their information, the proposal was put forward at a meeting in December 2024 by the assistant to the US national security leader, Jake Sullivan. According to his idea, a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities would be possible if Tehran "gets closer to acquiring a nuclear weapon by January 20", when the newly elected US President Donald Trump officially takes office. As Axios notes, Biden has rejected the idea.
The portal's sources emphasize that the discussion of the possibility of a strike "was not prompted by the emergence of new intelligence and does not imply a sanction on the part of Biden". One of the Axios sources emphasizes that "there are no such discussions currently taking place in the White House".
On December 19, 2024, the principal deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs Jonathan Feiner stated that the United States does not believe that Iran has made a decision to develop or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons. Speaking at a conference at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, he stressed that the United States is determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
On November 29 of that year, Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of a plan to install about 6,000 new reactors for the production of enriched uranium at nuclear facilities in Fordow and Natanz. At the same time, Tehran announced that it intended to enrich uranium to 5%. The maximum enrichment level provided for in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is 3.67%.
It was signed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany with Iran in 2015 to resolve the crisis surrounding the country's nuclear development. In 2018 Trump, during his first term as president, withdrew from the agreement and reinstated all anti-Iran sanctions lifted under the terms of the agreement.
In response, Iran's parliament passed the Strategic Action to Lift Sanctions and Protect the Interests of the Iranian People Act of 2020 and, in accordance with it, reduced some of the obligations under the nuclear deal, including the suspension of IAEA inspections outside the safeguards agreement.
According to Iranian officials, the West must return to full compliance with the terms of the agreement in order to restore existing systems of control over the development of Tehran's nuclear program.