Iran Is Better Positioned to Launch Nuclear-Weapons Program, New U.S. Intelligence Assessment Says

Laurence Norman and Michael R. Gordon

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Iran is pursuing research that has put it in a better position to launch a nuclear-weapons program, 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.

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.”