[Newsweek] Michael Hirsh - Many Israeli experts are appalled by the tone of the NIE report, which concludes with "high confidence" that Iran halted its "nuclear weapons program," despite Tehran's brazen pursuit of uranium enrichment. Uzi Arad, a former Mossad official, said that on a recent trip he made to Moscow, a Russian general poked fun at the naivete of the NIE, commenting that if the Iranians had halted weapons development in 2003 it was partly because they were satisfied with progress there and wanted to devote investment to harder parts of the nuclear equation, like enrichment. "The irony is that the effect of this report may be self-negating - by itself it will accelerate Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons," Arad said.
2007-12-24 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive