Despite the nuclear weapons rhetoric surrounding Iran, a White House official has reportedly said Iran is not currently building such a weapon.
"Just because they're not building right now, doesn't mean they aren't 'very close' as POTUS said on Air Force One," a senior administration official told an ABC News reporter Tuesday.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defiantly said earlier this month that abandoning uranium enrichment was "100%" against the country's interests, rejecting a central U.S. demand in talks to resolve a decadeslong dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, said the U.S. proposal "contradicts our nation's belief in self-reliance and the principle of 'We can.'"
"Uranium enrichment is the key to our nuclear program and the enemies have focused on the enrichment," Khamenei said during a televised speech marking the anniversary of the death of the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
"The proposal that the Americans have presented is 100% against our interests."
"The rude and arrogant leaders of America repeatedly demand that we should not have a nuclear program. Who are you to decide whether Iran should have enrichment?" he added.
Just before Israel's five-day campaign on Iran began, Iran informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog it plans to open a new uranium enrichment facility.
That came in response to the watchdog's board of governors declaring it in breach of non-proliferation obligations on Thursday, an official from the watchdog said.
The move by Iran was among several measures being taken because of the resolution, Iranian state TV said.
"This morning Iran put out a statement, said they would not dismantle their centrifuges; they were going to build more; they were going to enrich more uranium, and they were charging towards a nuclear weapon – and the effect of that was a giant middle finger to President Trump," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Newsmax's "Greg Kelly Reports" on the first night of strikes late last week.
"And it was also telling Israel: You had better strike now, because if you wait any longer, we will have a nuclear weapon, and we will use that to murder millions of your citizens.
"And I think that's we're seeing the direct consequences of Iran's defiance and their genocidal desire to murder as many Israelis as possible."
Material from Reuters was used to compile this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.