Washington – President Trump oppressing Iran to curtail its nuclear program or face possible military strikes, dealing with an issue that has vexed presidents of both parties for decades.
Iran – which denies any nuclear weapons ambitions – has amassed a growing stockpile of enriched uranium approaching the level of purity needed to build a bomb. Mr. Trump ordered the dismantling of three key nuclear sites in Iran last June, but now, less than a year later, the president has suggested that war is on the table again.
“They can’t have nuclear weapons. It’s too easy,” said Mr. Trump on Thursday, adding that he wants a “significant” deal with Iran, otherwise “bad things will happen.”
The US and Iran engage in informal conversations in recent weeks, as an array of US warships and warplanes arrived in the Middle East.
Mr. Trump indicated on Thursday that his time frame for reaching a deal on Iran’s nuclear program is 10 to 15 days. He has not made a final decision to attack Iran, CBS News reported.
Here are some details on Iran’s nuclear program:
How close is Iran to developing a nuclear weapon, and is it building one now?
In recent years, Iran has rapidly increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. As of mid-June 2025, just before the US strike, Iran had enriched 972 kilograms of uranium up to 60% purity, according to International Atomic Energy Agency estimates.
By comparison, Iran had 605.8 pounds of 60% enriched uranium in February 2025, and 267.9 pounds a year before that, the IAEA said.
Those goods are a short step away from weapons-grade 90%-enriched uranium.
The US Defense Intelligence Agency estimated last May that it would take Iran “about less than a week” to produce enough weapons-grade uranium to make its first bomb, if it decided to do so. Actually building a bomb can take a long time: Another wisdom summary from last year you got that Iran could develop a nuclear device within three to eight months without facing technical or programming delays, CBS News previously reported.
What is not clear, however, is whether Iran has decided to build a nuclear weapon. Iran is believed to have stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003, and the US intelligence community verified last spring that the program had not restarted.
“Iran is not likely to produce nuclear weapons, but Iran has undertaken activities in recent years that put it in a better position to develop them, if it chooses to do so,” the DIA said in May.
Asked on February 18 whether the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency has seen any signs that Iran may be currently working on developing a nuclear weapon, the agency’s director general. Rafael Grossi told the French television network did not have it.
“No,” he told TF1, adding: “On the contrary, I see, today, the determination of both sides to reach an agreement,” referring to the US and Iran.
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is completely peaceful, and that he doesn’t intend to to build a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s stockpile includes uranium enriched beyond the level needed for many non-military uses such as nuclear power or medical applications. The IAEA said in May that Iran is now “the only non-nuclear-weapon State to produce such nuclear material.”
What impact did the last US strikes on Iran have?
The airstrikes of last June target Iran’s Fordo and Natanz enrichment centers and research center near the city of Isfahan. It is unclear how much the strikes have damaged Iran’s nuclear program.
Mr. Trump has long said the strikes “destroyed” three nuclear sites, to reset the system as “decades.”
Grossi of the IAEA he told CBS News in June that the strikes caused “significant damage” but not “total damage.”
In his interview with the French network, Grossi said that Iran’s nuclear materials “still exist, in abundance,” despite the US strikes, although “some of them are less accessible.”
Satellite images from late January shows roofs erected over damaged buildings in the Natanz and Isfahan areas, possibly indicating Iran’s efforts to salvage whatever remains.
The IAEA says it withdrew its inspectors from Iran for security reasons shortly after the June strike, and Iran decided to suspend cooperation with the agency the following month. The organization said in November that it was able to conduct inspections in the months following these incidents, but not in any of the areas that were attacked by American forces.
Iran downplayed the strikes, arguing that did not remove its technical capabilities.
“Yes, you destroyed facilities, and equipment,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Fox News last month. “But technology can’t be bombed, and determination can’t be bombed either.”
What is the history of Iran’s nuclear program?
Iran’s nuclear program dates back decades, with some early research taking place under the US-backed government that controlled the country before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In the mid-1980s, Iran began to develop – or profiting from the black market – the technology needed to build centrifuges that can enrich uranium, according to the IAEA.
The country’s ambitions have drawn intense international pressure since 2002, when an anti-regime group alleged that Iran was secretly building nuclear facilities. The administration of former President George W. Bush later he was accused that Iran was working to develop missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
The IAEA said that until 2003, Iran had a “systematic program” to carry out “activities related to the development of a nuclear weapon.” The agency added that some of those activities are for military and non-military use, but others are “specific to nuclear weapons.”
While the US intelligence assessment was that Iran stopped trying to build nuclear weapons in 2003, the country resumed enriching uranium at various sites after that. As a result, it faced years of severe punishment.
In 2015, the administration of President Barack Obama made an agreement with Iran and other countries of the world to reduce the country’s uranium stockpile and enrichment capacity for a set period, and to bring Iran’s nuclear program under the supervision of the IAEA, in order to remove sanctions. This agreement was known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
After three years, Mr. Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from that agreementhe said it was not enough. He imposed a new round of tough sanctions, calling it a “major pressure campaign” to force Iran to negotiate a new deal. Efforts by the Biden administration and European parties in the JCPOA to renew the agreement they did not succeed.
Since then, Iran has stopped complying with the terms of that agreement, and has greatly improved its uranium enrichment program, including uranium enrichment to 60% purity the first time.
Araghchi he told CBS News shortly after last year’s strikes that Iran “will not easily back down from self-enrichment,” declaring the program “a matter of national pride and glory.”
