Iran: Sabre rattling and the reality

Some would say that one ought to be cautious about accepting any report from Iran's PressTV, but as it is reporting AP and referring to a piece in The New York Times, one would hope that what it is being reported here is accurate. If so, the sabre rattling from certain quarters directed at Iran - plus the sanctions imposed on the country - may well be totally displaced.

"The Associated Press report said Sunday that although Israeli leaders have been charging for years that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons, their officials have accepted the more nuanced American view.

The US Intelligence Community has said in frequent reports, the latest of which was published in February, that there is no hard evidence showing Iran has decided to build a nuclear bomb.

The report added that several senior Israeli officials, who spoke to AP in recent days clearly, said Israel has come around to the US view that no final decision to build a bomb has been made by Iran.

The officials, who are privy to Israeli intelligence, added that this is the prevailing view in the Israeli intelligence community.

On March 18, The New York Times published a report quoting a former top US intelligence official as saying that both Washington and Tel Aviv have reached a consensus over the peaceful nature of Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

“There is not a lot of dispute between the US and Israeli intelligence communities on the fact” that Iran has not deviated from its nuclear energy program.

The Los Angeles Times reported on February 23rd that 16 US intelligence agencies agree Tehran was not seeking to build nuclear weapons.

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

The US and Israel have been escalating their war rhetoric against Iran in recent months, claiming that there are diversions in the country’s nuclear energy program towards a military one."

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