nuclear-news

General agreement that Iran is nowhere near having the nuclear bomb

Intel shows Iran nuclear threat not imminent, Business Recorder, MARCH 24, 2012   The United States, European allies and even Israel generally agree on three things about Iran’s nuclear program: Tehran does not have a bomb, has not decided to build one, and is probably years away from having a deliverable nuclear warhead.

Those conclusions, drawn from extensive interviews with current and
former US and European officials with access to intelligence on Iran,
contrast starkly with the heated debate surrounding a possible Israeli
strike on Tehran’s nuclear facilities. Reuters has learned that in
late 2006 or early 2007, US intelligence intercepted telephone and
email communications in which Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a leading figure in
Iran’s nuclear program, and other scientists complained that the
weaponization program had been stopped.
That led to a bombshell conclusion in a controversial 2007 National
Intelligence Estimate: American spy agencies had “high confidence”
that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003.

Current and former US officials say they are confident that Iran has
no secret uranium-enrichment site outside the purview of UN nuclear
inspections.
They also have confidence that any Iranian move toward building a
functional nuclear weapon would be detected long before a bomb was
made.

These intelligence findings are what underpin President Barack Obama’s
argument that there is still time to see whether economic sanctions
will compel Iran’s leaders to halt any program.
The Obama administration, relying on a top-priority intelligence
collection program and after countless hours of debate, has concluded
that Iranian leaders have not decided whether to actively construct a
nuclear weapon, current and former officials said…..
http://www.brecorder.com/general-news/172/1168589/

March 26, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, politics international, weapons and war