Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Kit Bond, Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that an intelligence report released today on Iran’s nuclear program is probably good news, but cautions that serious diplomatic problems with Iran remain.
“At first blush, this looks like a good news story. Good because the Intelligence Community was willing to reconsider an important intelligence judgment. More importantly, it’s good news that Iran doesn’t appear to be currently working on a bomb. I look forward, however, to the completion of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s examination of the Iran NIE and the underlying intelligence documents, so that I can better understand how they reached these judgments.”
The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) released unclassified Key Judgments from its Iran National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) today. The report assesses that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003. The new estimate also judges that Tehran is “at a minimum” keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has been reviewing the quality of the Intelligence Community’s Iran assessments for several years, noted Bond. Now that the Senate Intelligence Committee has the new NIE, that work will continue. Bond stressed that the Committee will thoroughly examine both the classified NIE and the underlying intelligence reporting upon which the NIE’s assessments were based.
Bond cautioned that regardless of Iran’s current intent concerning nuclear weapons, Tehran’s pursuit of a uranium enrichment capability remains a significant problem.
“Uranium enrichment is a dangerous capability. I’m not comfortable with Iran having the means to produce bomb-grade material, in case they change their mind later. I hope this new assessment doesn’t undermine the current multi-lateral efforts to resolve that problem,” said Bond.
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