Officials within US intelligence have said that Iran seems to be “less determined” than before when it comes to the development of nuclear weapons.

The Iranian capital Tehran put an end to its nuclear programme four years ago, but persists with the process of uranium enrichment, according to a National Intelligence Estimate study.

The White House referred to this new stance on Iran’s nuclear activity as “positive news”, but added that the threat of the country gaining a nuclear capability was still a “serious problem”.

Iran: Uranium Enrichment Programme for Civilian Use

Iran remains adamant that its enriched uranium is intended for use away from the military sector.

A condensed and unclassified version of the report has been issued. Assimilating data from the 16 intelligence agencies working in the US, it asserts with “high confidence” that “international pressure” sparked the termination of nuclear weapons development in Iran in 2003. Since then, the report added, it could be stated with “moderate confidence” that the situation has not changed.

“Significant progress” was made by Iran earlier this year, when it installed the centrifuges required in the uranium enrichment process. However, the authors of the report wrote, with “moderate confidence”, that “significant technical problems” are still apparent in the operation of these devices.

Iranian Nuclear Weapon Unlikely for Eight Years

The report concluded that – owing to the supply of enriched uranium currently available for the purpose – Iran could not likely produce a nuclear weapon before 2015. This echoed comments made in October by Mohamed El Baradei - the head of the United Nations’ IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) – who stated then that Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon could take up to eight years.

Source – Armed Forces International’s US Correspondent

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