[Asharq Al-Awsat-UK] Interview with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte - Q: Regarding the nuclear issue, you have a personal assessment that Iran would not possess any real capabilities to create nuclear weapons until 2010 or 2015 perhaps. Is that the U.S. assessment? A: That remains the assessment. It is a judgment that the intelligence community reached in 2005, and it has not changed. Q: Can one deduct from that that the U.S. is in no hurry to take the military option? A: No, I think that this was not a policy prescriptive assessment; this was simply the best judgment of the intelligence community as to when it thought that capability was likely to be available. It was not designed to suggest one policy or another. I should add that we think it is important that Iran cease its enrichment program immediately. We have had at least two Security Council resolutions that have been passed to that effect. This is a view that is shared, it is not a unilateral view of ours; it is shared by the entire Security Council.
2007-07-27 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive