U.S. REVISES ASSESSMENT ON IRAN'S NUKES WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States has quietly revised its assessment on Iran's nuclear weapons program.
Officials said the U.S. intelligence community has determined that Iran became capable of enriching uranium and completing the nuclear fuel cycle. They said the new assessment envisioned Iran as ready to produce fissile material for its first weapons.
"I would say that Iran does have the capability to develop nuclear weapons and the delivery means for those weapons," Undersecretary of State Robert Joseph said. "We have watched Iran proceed step by step, conversion to enrichment-related activities, in a way that demonstrates very clearly that they are moving forward to a nuclear weapons capability."
Officials said this was the first time that a senior U.S. official publicly assessed that Iran has achieved nuclear weapons capability. In an earlier briefing to Congress, National Intelligence director John Negroponte said Iran failed to acquire key components required for indigenous nuclear weapons production.