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U.S. Intelligence Says Iran Is Better Positioned to Launch Nuclear-Weapons Program
(Wall Street Journal) Laurence Norman - A July report to Congress from the U.S. Director of National Intelligence warned that Iran has "undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so." Driving the change in the new intelligence assessment is scientific and engineering research work that Iran has been doing over the past year, experts say. In recent months there have been concerns among Israeli and U.S. officials about weaponization-related research being conducted by Iran, including computer modeling and metallurgy. Even if Iran weren't to proceed with the development of a bomb, the intelligence report added, Tehran seeks to exploit international worry over the pace of its program "for negotiation leverage and to respond to perceived international pressure." "Now that Iran has mastered the production of weapons-grade uranium, the next logical step is to resume weaponization activities to shorten the time needed to manufacture a nuclear device once a political decision is made," said Gary Samore, director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University and a former White House official. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in July that it would probably take Iran "one or two weeks" to produce enough weapons-grade enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon. Experts say Iran already has enough enriched uranium to be able to fuel multiple nuclear weapons within six months. David Albright, a former weapons inspector who heads the Institute for Science and International Security, said it could take Iran less than six months to develop a crude nuclear device and that Iran has managed to deceive the U.S. about its nuclear capabilities in the past. "We need a new, honest public discussion on Iran's nuclear-weapons capabilities and the technical and diplomatic structure Tehran has put in place that would allow it to quickly build nuclear weapons while the U.S. is paralyzed in its attempts to avoid a crisis," Albright said.