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U.S. Finds Iran Halted Its Nuclear Arms Effort in 2003

[New York Times] Mark Mazzetti - A new National Intelligence Estimate released Monday concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen. The assessment, the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran is likely to keep its options open with respect to building a weapon, but that intelligence agencies "do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons." Iran is continuing to produce enriched uranium, a program that could provide Iran with enough raw material to produce a nuclear weapon sometime by the middle of the next decade. But the new report essentially disavows a judgment that the intelligence agencies issued in 2005, which concluded that Iran had an active secret arms program intended to transform the raw material into a nuclear weapon. Administration officials said the intelligence findings would not lessen White House concern about the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran. The fact that Iran continues to refine its abilities to enrich uranium, they said, could lead Iran to a bomb in relatively short order.
2007-12-04 01:00:00
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