WASHINGTON (JTA) — Iran must give up its nuclear ambitions in the next month or face sanctions, a White House spokesman said.
"Time is running out," Robert Gibbs said Thursday at a news conference, according to Reuters. "That deadline is the end of the year."The Iranian regime maintains it is enriching uranium to generate electricity, but it has resisted a deal with Western countries that would send its low-enriched uranium abroad for processing into fuel.
Gibbs said it was "pretty clear" that the Iranians were backing out of their original agreement to that arrangement, which was brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations.
Iran vowed last week to build 10 new uranium-enrichment plants, just days after the IAEA condemned it for building its second one, according to the French news agency AFP.
