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.

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