US knows Iran not after A-bomb: Report - Gayo Lues

The most recent report on Iran’s nuclear program “represents the consensus of 16 US intelligence agencies,” the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

The “highly classified” intelligence assessment was reportedly circulated among US policymakers early last year.

The US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report published in December 2007 also confirmed with “high confidence” the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.

The report comes days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama are to meet in Washington to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.

The United States, Israel and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program, using this pretext to impose sanctions against Iran and threaten the country with military attack.

Tel Aviv and Washington officials have recently ramped up their war rhetoric, threatening Iran with military strikes in case the US-engineered sanctions against the country fail to force Tehran into abandoning its civilian nuclear program.

Iran has refuted the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful use.

The IAEA has never found any evidence indicating that Tehran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted towards nuclear weapons production.

YH/HMV/HGH