The deadline set by President Donald Trump for Iran has arrived, and on Sunday, negotiations between the two countries are set to resume, following Trump’s ultimatum to Tehran: if a nuclear agreement is not reached within two months, the United States will launch a military strike. “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombs—bombs like they’ve never seen before,” Trump warned.
Last week, Trump stated on Meet the Press that the objective of negotiations with Iran should be the complete dismantling of its nuclear program. “Total dismantlement. Yes, that is all I would accept,” Trump told moderator Kristen Welker.
“I just don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon because the world will be destroyed,” he said, adding, “I want Iran to be really successful, really great, really fantastic. The only thing they can’t have is a nuclear weapon. If they want to be successful, that’s okay. I want them to be so successful.”
On Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that the Islamic Republic of Iran had declared the acquisition and use of nuclear weapons forbidden and consistently upheld its obligations under the international non-proliferation regime. However, he stressed that Iran remains firm in asserting its right to peaceful nuclear energy, including uranium enrichment.
“We are not seeking nuclear weapons, and weapons of mass destruction have no place in Iran’s security doctrine. That is why we were among the initiators of creating a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the West Asian region,” the Foreign Minister said.
“It is necessary for Western countries and all those who claim to oppose nuclear weapons to refrain from double standards. We cannot claim to be concerned about the peaceful nuclear energy of Iran and other countries in the region, but allow an occupying, aggressor, and genocidal regime to possess a large arsenal of nuclear weapons,” he said.
1 YEAR AGO
In the final months of the Biden administration, newly obtained US intelligence suggested Iran was exploring a more rudimentary design for a nuclear weapon—one that could potentially allow for the rapid production of a usable device within a matter of months.
Amid ongoing progress in negotiations between Washington and Tehran, Fox News reported that Iran had been operating a covert military nuclear site near Tehran for roughly a decade. According to the report, the facility serves no plausible civilian purpose and constitutes a clear violation of the nuclear agreements Iran has signed.
Satellite images reveal alleged secret Iranian nuclear weapons facility
“According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), intelligence gathered from sources inside the country points to a sprawling compound covering nearly 2,500 acres.”https://t.co/6fc70mkZTp— NCRI-U.S. Rep Office (@NCRIUS) May 9, 2025
3 YEARS AGO
In 2022, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett accused Iran of using documents stolen from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to help conceal its involvement in prohibited nuclear activities.
In a video statement, Bennett asserted that “Iran lied to the world—and Iran is lying to the world again right now.” He presented what he described as copies of Iran’s “deception plan,” including handwritten notes in Persian allegedly instructing officials to prepare a “cover story.”
Iran denied running a secret nuclear program and claimed that the evidence presented by Israel was fabricated.
However, a 2020 report by the IAEA concluded that Iran had violated key provisions of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), drawing sharp criticism from the agreement’s signatories. In 2021, concerns deepened as Iran’s claims that its nuclear program was strictly peaceful were increasingly questioned, particularly in light of advances in its missile capabilities, satellite launches, and references to nuclear weapons development.
In 2022, Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, announced a strategic plan to expand Iran’s nuclear power capacity to 10 gigawatts of electricity. By October 2023, the IAEA reported that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile had grown to 22 times the limit set by the 2015 nuclear deal.
7 YEARS AGO
In 2018, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed what he described as a “half ton” of Iranian nuclear documents obtained by Israeli intelligence, asserting that the materials proved Iran had concealed a nuclear weapons program prior to the 2015 agreement with world powers.
Netanyahu argued that the documents demonstrated Iran’s deception and urged President Donald Trump to withdraw from the nuclear deal the following month. “Iran lied big time,” Netanyahu declared during the televised presentation.
23 YEARS AGO
An investigation by the IAEA was launched after the National Council of Resistance of Iran disclosed in 2002 that Iran had engaged in undeclared nuclear activities. In 2006, Iran’s failure to comply with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) prompted the United Nations Security Council to demand a suspension of its nuclear program.
According to the 2007 US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), Iran halted its suspected nuclear weapons program in 2003. However, a 2011 IAEA report cited credible evidence suggesting Iran had conducted experiments related to nuclear bomb design, with some research possibly continuing on a reduced scale thereafter.
Iran’s nuclear power ambitions took a significant step forward with the launch of the Bushehr-1 reactor in September 2011, built with Russian assistance. The project marked Iran’s entry into “civilian nuclear energy” and was a milestone for Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, cementing its status as a leading force in the global nuclear power market.
