Iranian President Rouhani said Iran would abide by its commitments while it consults with the other signatories to the agreement. However, Rouhani also said he had ordered the country’s “atomic industry organization to be fully prepared for subsequent measures if needed so that in case of need we will start our industrial enrichment without limitations.” Does Iran still have enough nuclear material and developmental capacity to do this?
Iran still has the basic technologies and capacity to build a nuclear weapon. Under JCPOA, Iran was allowed to maintain 300kg of enriched uranium, and still has at least 10,000 operational centrifuges, which may be taken out of storage and used again to make more enriched uranium. The JCPOA changed nothing about Iran’s basic ability to create a nuclear weapon, and in fact, only delayed it for 10 years.