House Intelligence Committee chairman warns that Iran could declare itself a nuclear state this year

Iran could declare itself a nuclear weapons state by the end of the year. So warned Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He made the warning during an interview in which he blamed the administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for the situation.

"What we see now with this administration, [Iran] might declare themselves a nuclear weapons state by the end of this year, with the reports have been- news reports have been out stating that there is a possibility," Turner said Sunday on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan on CBS.

Turner argued that this possibility would not exist if Donald Trump remained president. Instead he noted that the Democratic administration's inaction has allowed Iran's nuclear weapons breakthrough.

"There is not a response that impacts Iran or that has a deterrent effect, or holds them accountable. And that, of course, results in increased activity and increased emboldening of Iran to meddle in our elections, and to, I think, you know, have people at risk in our country." Turner stressed.

The House Intelligence Committee chairman's warning coincides with a warning made by experts to Fox News. James Carafano, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at The Heritage Foundation, explained that it is a real possibility that Iran will declare itself a nuclear power before the end of the year.

"I mean, if I were the Iranians and I were going to do it, I would do it now because Biden will do nothing," he stressed.

But, moreover, this is a fact that the Biden-Harris administration itself has warned about. In July, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that Iran would be a week or two away from producing enough material for a nuclear weapon. He maintained that he is not optimistic about a political change in that country despite the election of a new president.

"Instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, it is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that," Blinken told the Aspen Security Forum in remarks reported by The Times Of Israel.

However, the head of U.S. diplomacy explained that they have not yet produced the weapon itself, which would take much longer. In addition, he defended Joe Biden's policy to Iranian authorities.

"When this administration came in, we tried to pursue again, nuclear diplomacy with Iran, because if you could at least take one problem off the board, which is Iran potentially with a nuclear weapon, that’s inherently a good thing," Blinken said.

In addition, Blinken noted that the Democratic administration prefers diplomacy to deal with the situation even though he emphasized that it will not allow Iran to produce the nuclear weapon.

"What we need to see, if Iran is serious about engaging, is actually pulling back on the work that it’s been doing on his program... Second, we have been maximizing pressure on Iran across the board. We’ve imposed more than 600 sanctions on Iranian persons and entities. We haven’t lifted a single sanction," he maintained.