(Newsweek) Mark Hosenball - U.S. intelligence agencies are quietly revising their widely disputed assertion that Iran has no active program to design or build a nuclear bomb. Three U.S. and two foreign counterproliferation officials tell Newsweek that, as soon as next month, the intel agencies are expected to complete an "update" to their 2007 National Intelligence Estimate. U.S. analysts now believe that Iran may well have resumed "research" on nuclear weapons - theoretical work on how to design and construct a bomb - but that Tehran is not engaged in "development" - actually trying to build a weapon. The update is unlikely to have an immediate impact on the White House's Iran policy. The administration already bases its cautious diplomatic approach on the assumption that Iran has, in fact, been pursuing a bomb.
2010-01-18 08:01:29Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive