Iran is better positioned to launch nuclear-weapons program, new US intelligence
Iran is undertaking research activities that have put it in a better position to launch a nuclear-weapons program, though it has yet to do so, according to a new assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies. The shift in Washington’s view of Iran’s nuclear efforts comes at a critical time, with Iran having produced enough highly-enriched nuclear fuel for a few nuclear weapons.
It also comes as tensions in the Middle East have sharply escalated since Iran threatened to strike Israel following the assassination of a leading Hamas figure in Tehran that the Iranians have blamed on the Israelis. The U.S. intelligence community still believes that Iran isn’t currently working to build a nuclear device, a U.S.
official said. Nor does it have evidence that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, is considering resuming his country’s nuclear-weapons program, which U.S. intelligence says was largely suspended in 2003.
But a July report to Congress from the 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." The report omitted what has been a standard U.S. intelligence assertion for years: that Iran “isn’t currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons development activities necessary to produce a testable nuclear device." President Biden has repeatedly said that the U.S. will never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, raising the possibility of military action if Washington was to determine that Tehran has embarked on an intensive effort to build a nuclear device.
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