How advanced is Iran’s nuclear programme? Here’s what we know.

Washington – President Trump is putting pressure on Iran. It would either have to scale back its nuclear programme or face possible military attacks, grappling with an issue that has troubled presidents of both parties for decades.

Iran – which denies any nuclear weapons ambitions – has amassed growing reserves of uranium enriched to the level of purity needed to make a bomb. Mr Trump ordered strikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites last June, but now, less than a year later, the president has suggested military action is again on the table.

“They can’t have nuclear weapons. Very simple,” Mr Trump said on Thursday, adding that he wanted a “substantial” deal with Iran; otherwise, “bad things will happen.”

America and Iran engaged in indirect negotiations. In recent weeks, a fleet of US naval ships and military aircraft arrived in the Middle East.

Mr Trump indicated on Thursday that his deadline to reach a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme was 10 to 15 days. They have not reached a final decision on whether or not to attack Iran. CBS News reported.

Here are some details on Iran’s nuclear programme:

How close is Iran to making a nuclear weapon, and is it building one now?

Recently, Iran has rapidly increased its reserves of highly enriched uranium. According to estimates, by mid-June 2025, shortly before the US attacks, Iran had enriched about 972 pounds of uranium to 60% purity. International Atomic Energy Agency.

By comparison, Iran had 605.8 pounds 60%-enriched uranium in February 2025 and 267.9 pounds A year before that, the IAEA had said.

That stuff is just a small step far from weapons-grade 90%-enriched uranium.

US Defense Intelligence Agency It was estimated last May that if Iran decides to do so, it would take “probably less than a week” to produce enough weapons-grade uranium to make its first bomb. Actually, making bombs may take some more time: Another intelligence summary of the past year – he got it. CBS News previously reported that Iran could build a nuclear device within three to eight months, unless it faces technical or logistical delays.

However, it is not clear whether Iran has decided to develop nuclear weapons. Iran is believed to have halted its nuclear weapons programme. In 2003, the US intelligence community Evaluated last spring That the programme was not restarted.

“Iran is almost certainly not producing nuclear weapons, but Iran has taken activities in recent years that put it in a better position to produce them if it wished to do so,” the DIA said. said in May.

On February 18, when asked whether the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency had seen any indication that Iran was currently working to develop a nuclear weapon, the agency’s director general, Rafael Grossi, said it was not a French television network.

“No,” he told TF1, “on the contrary, today, I see a willingness on both sides to reach an agreement,” referring to the US and Iran.

Iran, for its part, has long insisted that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and that it is not intended to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran’s stockpile includes enriched uranium at levels far beyond those required for most 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 producing such nuclear material.”

What was the impact of previous US attacks on Iran?

Air strikes last June targeted Iran’s Fordow and Natanz enrichment facilities and a research site near the city of Isfahan. It is unclear how much damage the attacks caused to Iran’s nuclear programme.

Mr Trump has long said the strikes “destroyed” three nuclear sites and reset the programme “essentially by decades”.

IAEA’s Grossi told CBS News. It said in June that the attacks caused “severe damage” but not “total damage”.

In his interview with the French network, Grossi said that Iran’s nuclear material was “still there, in large quantities” despite the US attacks, although “some of it may be less accessible.”

satellite images: Roofs remaining on damaged buildings are visible at the Natanz and Isfahan sites in late January, potentially indicating efforts by Iran to salvage any remaining material.

iaea They say it withdrew its inspectors from Iran for security reasons soon after the June attacks, and the following month Iran suspended cooperation with the agency. The agency said in november He was able to make some observations in the months following the attacks, but not at any of the sites attacked by US forces.

Iran downplayed the attacks; their argument is that they did not exhaust its technical capabilities.

“Yes, you destroyed facilities and machines,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Fox News last month. “But technology cannot be bombed, and determination also cannot be bombed.”

What is the history of Iran’s nuclear programme?

Iran’s nuclear program dates back decades with Some preliminary research activities This was happening under the US-allied government that controlled the country before the 1979 Islamic revolution. By the mid-1980s, Iran began to develop – or acquire on the black market – the technology needed to build centrifuges that can enrich uranium, according to the IAEA.

The country’s ambitions triggered intense international pressure in 2002 as an anti-regime group alleged Iran had secretly built a pair of nuclear facilities. The administration of former President George W. Bush alleged later that Iran was working on developing missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

The IAEA said that by 2003, Iran had a “structured programme” to carry out “activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device”. The agency said some of those activities have military and non-military uses, but some “are specific to nuclear weapons”.

While the US intelligence assessment was that Iran had stopped trying to develop nuclear weapons in 2003, the country resumed uranium enrichment at various points thereafter. As a result, it faced increasingly stringent sanctions for several years.

In 2015, the administration of President Barack Obama reached an agreement with Iran and other world powers to limit the country’s uranium reserves and enrichment capacity for a certain period and hand over Iran’s nuclear programme to IAEA monitoring in exchange for sanctions relief. This agreement was known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.

Three years later, Mr Trump’s America unilaterally withdrew its name from that agreement, which he argued was inadequate. He imposed a new round of tough sanctions, dubbing it a “maximum pressure” campaign to force Iran to negotiate a new deal. Efforts by Biden administration and European parties to JCPOA revive the deal We were unsuccessful.

Since then, Iran has stopped adhering to the terms of that agreement, ramping up dramatically. Its uranium enrichment programme also includes uranium enrichment up to 60% purity for the first time.

Araghchi told CBS News shortly after last year’s strikes that Iran “will not easily back down from enrichment”, declaring the programme “a matter of national pride and glory”.