Taking the stage before Iranian lawmakers on Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addressed a recent bout of United States sanctions. But in an interesting twist, Rouhani diverted from his usual approach of merely castigating the White House and added a new tool of rhetoric: nuclear blackmail.

“If they [the U.S. administration] are willing to repeat previous experiences, Iran will certainly, within a short period—not on a scale of weeks or months, but on a scale of hours and days—will return to a much more advanced position than when the talks started,” Rouhani announced.

The statement not only reveals the state of Iran’s nuclear program, but also the mindset of those who wield it.

The Iranian president claims his country can rev up its nuclear program to an advanced stage. He gave no evidence to support his claim, but there is plenty of it out there.

The Institute for Science and International Security claims that Iran recently attempted to purchase a large stockpile of carbon fiber. “This raises concerns,” the institute said, “over whether Iran intends to abide by its jcpoa [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] commitments. In particular, Iran may seek to stockpile the carbon fiber so as to be able to build advanced centrifuge rotors far beyond its current needs under the jcpoa, providing an advantage that would allow it to quickly build an advanced centrifuge enrichment plant if it chose to leave or disregard the jcpoa during the next few years.”

In 2014, the same institute estimated that after initiating the process Iran could have 25 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium in just two to three months. Other estimates at the time were even shorter. And this doesn’t even account for “sneak-out,” the possibility that Iran might already be covertly enriching uranium at undisclosed locations, which would make its breakout time even shorter.

By that measure, if Iran broke out tomorrow, it could have enough material for multiple nuclear warheads by early 2018. The jcpoa did not force Iran to destroy much of its nuclear infrastructure; it only stipulated that Iran turn it off.

In 2015, Business Insider reported:

Iran will have to modify its heavy-water reactor at Arak so as to make it impossible to produce bomb-grade plutonium. But it will still get to keep a reactor which has no conceivable civilian purpose—and [along with it] a possible future plutonium path to a nuclear weapon.

Speaking of heavy water, Iran has at least twice exceeded its agreed limitations. It has also tried repeatedly to purchase nuclear compartments from Germany.

These purchases no doubt contribute to the “advanced position” Rouhani referred to. The Western media would like to think Iran’s nuclear development has ceased and stagnated for years. It hasn’t. It just moved to North Korea and/or became known as the missile program.

The Trumpet has written extensively on the blossoming relationship between Iran and North Korea, and how it could lead to nuclear breakout in Iran. Earlier this year, nuclear experts Dr. Rafael Ofek and Dr. Dany Shoham claimed that the two nations were colluding and thereby undermining the nuclear deal.

In their report published by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, the two wrote:

From the 1990s onward, dozens—perhaps hundreds—of North Korean scientists and technicians apparently worked in Iran in nuclear and ballistic facilities. Ballistic missile field tests were held in Iran, for instance near Qom, where the North Korea missiles Hwasong-6 (originally the Soviet Scud-C, which is designated in Iran as Shehab-2) and Nodong-1 (designated in Iran as Shehab-3) were tested. Moreover, in the mid-2000s, the Shehab-3 was tentatively adjusted by Kamran Daneshjoo, a top Iranian scientist, to carry a nuclear warhead.

Read Trumpet Jerusalem correspondent Brent Nagtegaal’s full article on the subject here.

Under the jcpoa, the missile program is technically separate from the nuclear program. That is like saying bullets have no connection with guns. When Rouhani says that Iran can restart its nuclear program from a more advanced position, he is telling the truth. Iran has not slowed its missile program for one second before, during or after the nuclear deal. And who knows how much nuclear sharing Iran has been doing with the North Koreans, who are even less beholden to the international community and who have launched eight ballistic missiles and detonated four nuclear weapons since the beginning of the Obama administration.

It is also worth looking at Rouhani himself. This Iranian “moderate” just threatened to return to the pursuit of nuclear weapons.

In the lead-up to Iran’s latest election, the New York Times suggested hard-liners, and perhaps Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would instead promote a more “combative figure.” The Trumpet reported on this in an article titled “Iran’s Next President Will Be a Hard-liner.” Although Rouhani is still president, this is exactly what has happened.

At the time we wrote, “Perhaps Rouhani will show his true colors and fulfill that role, perhaps not. One thing is certain though: A soft, diplomatic Iran is not coming anytime soon.”

Now the freshly reelected Rouhani has threatened the world with nuclear blackmail.

The Trumpet has reported on this eventuality for decades. The warning contained in Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s free booklet The King of the South has been sent out since the early 1990s.

Iran is threatening to make a dash for nuclear weapons, and the United States is doing almost nothing in response.

As Trumpet executive editor Stephen Flurry said in a recent episode of the Trumpet Daily Radio Show, “These nations are not hesitating to punch back. They are not hesitating to answer back to any and every move the United States makes …. How far we’ve fallen …. These nations are lining up to take a swing at the United States!”

Some analysts say that right now Iran needs the nuclear deal more than the U.S. does. True or not, the time is coming when Iran is going to push for the nuclear bomb, and it isn’t going to be in 15 years when the jcpoa ends. As Rouhani’s comments indicate, Iran is just as close to the bomb today as it was in 2015—if not closer.