A senior US security official Sunday disagreed with the assessment that Iran now knows how to make a nuclear bomb.
According to the Sunday New York Times [1], a secret International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report says that Iran has "sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable" atom bomb.
US National Security Adviser James Jones, however, disputed the IAEA's findings. Asked on CNN's "State of the Union [2]" if Iran has the data to make a nuclear bomb, he said: "No, we stand by the reports that we've put out."
Two years ago, the US released a report suggesting that Iran has stopped work on its nuclear-weapons program in 2003. The Times emphasizes that other countries, including Britain and France, have begun to have doubts about this conclusion.
The authors of the so-called "secret annex" of the IAEA report acknowledge that their findings are not definitive and that further investigation is necessary.
But the report embodies a growing split within the nuclear agency on how hard to push Iran, The Times suggests.
Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the IAEA, has sought to emphasize progress in talks with Ira... >>>
Links:
[1] //www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/world/middleeast/04nuke.html
[2] //transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0910/04/sotu.01.html