According to what we are told, they have been close for years. How close? There is no doubt that they would like to have nukes, and they are actively enriching uranium, supposedly for peaceful energy generation.
How do we know they do not have nukes? They could buy them from North Korea or Pakistan. They have been assisted by A. Q. Khan, the father of the Pakistan nuke program so we don’t really know if they have nukes of their own design yet.