The evaluation of American intelligence on the Iranian nuclear program remains unchanged

The American assessment of the Iranian nuclear program has not changed since March, when the national intelligence director told legislators that Tehran had large quantities of enriched uranium but had not made the decision to rush towards the construction of an atomic bomb, according to the best democrat of the Intelligence Senate Committee and a source knowing the issue.

The comments of President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have painted a different image, suggesting that Iran is now heading for the creation of a nuclear weapon.

Trump said on Wednesday that Iran was “a few weeks” to have a nuclear weapon and Netanyahu said in a recent interview that Iran was pursuing a “secret plan” to build a bomb in a few months.

“The Intel that we obtained and we shared with the United States was absolutely clear, was absolutely clear that they worked on a secret level to arm uranium,” Netanyahu recently told Fox News. “They were walking very quickly. They would carry out a test device and perhaps an initial device in a few months and certainly less than a year. ”

American intelligence reports on Israel are generally based in part on the information provided by Israel’s intelligence services. It was not clear if Netanyahu’s remarks were based on a different interpretation of the same intelligence.

Virginie’s Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, vice-president of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told journalists that he was perplexed by Trump’s claims, legislators, legislators had received a different image from US intelligence officials.

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, told legislators in March that American spy agencies assessed that Iran had not made the decision to build nuclear weapons, but he had uranium stocks enriched far beyond what is necessary for civil ends. The opinion of the United States community has not changed since its testimony, said the source of the case.

Warner said on Wednesday that he had received an additional confirmation of the “this week” intelligence assessment.

On Tuesday, President Trump publicly rejected Gabbard’s testimony, saying “I don’t care what she said”.

Warner said the administration should clarify if there were new information on Iranian nuclear work.

“Until now, at least, the intelligence community has concluded that Iran is not going towards a nuclear weapon. They enriched the additional uranium, but they did not yet arm it, and that (the decision) had been left with the supreme chief,” said Warner.

“If there has been a change in this intelligence, I need to know and that I want to make sure that if it is modified, it is based on facts and not on political influence,” said the senator.

Build the bomb

For Iran to acquire a nuclear arsenal, it should enrich uranium with 90% purity. Currently, it has a significant amount of uranium enriched at 60%, or about 400 kilograms, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

It would take a small technical step to enrich at 90%. Iran now has enough uranium to produce up to 10 weapons over several weeks, according to the estimates of American officials.

But enriching uranium levels at weapons levels is only the first step. Then, Iran should build and test a device that can be delivered in the form of a bomb or missile. Estimates vary, but Western officials and analysts say he could take months for more than a year to build a nuclear weapon.

Arms experts say that Iran is not a few weeks old to obtain a nuclear weapon, but it is far from securing enough fissile materials for a possible weapon.

The director general of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, said in a report earlier this month that “Iran is the only state of non-nuclear weapons in the world that produces and accumulates uranium enriched at 60%.”

But on Tuesday, Grosi told CNN that the UN inspectors did not have proof that Iran was engaged in “a systematic effort to move in a nuclear weapon”.

Israel’s air strikes on Iran have probably removed the country’s nuclear program by a few months, according to two sources knowing the issue.

Since the launch of its campaign against Iran last week, Israel has bombed centrifugal factories used to enrich uranium, including a site in Natanz south of Tehran, and laboratories used to convert uranium into a metal, according to IEA and Israeli officials.

Israel says he killed several nuclear and targeted scientists of missile launching and storage sites in his air raids.