Iran welcomes U.S. move to ‘correct’ nuke claim

updated 2:28 p.m. ET Dec. 4, 2007

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran’s foreign minister on Tuesday welcomed the U.S. decision to “correct” its claim that Tehran has an active nuclear weapons program, while Israel’s defense minister said Israeli intelligence believes Iran is still trying to develop an atomic weapon.

A U.S. intelligence assessment released Monday reversed earlier claims that Iran had restarted its weapons program in 2005 after suspending it in 2003 because of international pressure.

“It’s natural that we welcome ... countries that correct their views realistically which in the past had questions and ambiguities about (Iran’s nuclear activities),” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.

Conservative lawmaker Elham Aminzadeh told The Associated Press that “it proved that Iran is not a danger to the world, as some members of the Bush administration claim.”

U.N. watchdog agrees
In Vienna, the U.N. atomic watchdog agency said the U.S. finding is consistent with its own.

“Although Iran still needs to clarify some important aspects of its past and present nuclear activities, the agency has no concrete evidence of an ongoing nuclear weapons program or undeclared nuclear facilities in Iran,” International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Mohamed ElBaradei said.

The finding is part of a National Intelligence Estimate on Iran that also cautions that Tehran continues to enrich uranium and still could develop a bomb between 2010 and 2015 if it decided to do so.

The conclusion that Iran’s weapons program was still frozen, through at least mid-2007, represents a sharp turnaround from the previous intelligence assessment in 2005.

Then, U.S. intelligence agencies believed Tehran was determined to develop a nuclear weapons capability and was continuing its weapons development program. The new report concludes that Iran’s decisions are rational and pragmatic, and that Tehran is more susceptible to diplomatic and financial pressure than previously thought.

“Tehran’s decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005,” says the unclassified summary of the secret report.

Time of escalating tensions
The finding comes at a time of escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, which President Bush has labeled part of an “axis of evil,” along with Iraq and North Korea.

At an Oct. 17 news conference, Bush said, “If you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them (Iran) from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”

Other Iranian officials also praised the new intelligence report.

“This confession from within the U.S. administration’s most sensitive ranks is proof ... that (Iran’s) nuclear program is peaceful,” top lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.

Rand Beers, who resigned from Bush’s National Security Council just before the Iraq war, said the report should derail any appetite for war on the administration’s part, and should reinvigorate regional diplomacy. “The new NIE throws cold water on the efforts of those urging military confrontation with Iran,” he said.

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