An American expert on Iran’s controversial nuclear weapons program is pushing back against a recent report by the Biden administration’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), which claimed that Iran is not currently pursuing nuclear weapons.
The DNI’s report, which stated, “Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities that would be necessary to produce a testable nuclear device,” has been criticized for utilizing an obsolete definition in its analysis.
David Albright, founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, D.C., recently spoke out, stating the key issue lies in the conflicting definitions of a nuclear weapons program between the United States and European intelligence agencies.
Albright, renowned for his extensive work with the International Atomic Energy Agency, was firm in his stance, telling Fox News , “It is a matter of how Europeans define a nuclear weapon program vs. USA intelligence community’s definition, combined with a serious post-Iraqi WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction] analytical paralysis.”
Albright further expounded on the issue, criticizing the U.S. intelligence community for sticking to the “defective, overly defensive 2007 NIE [National Intelligence Estimate] framework.” Albright claimed U.S. intelligence is “trapped” by an “absurd definition.”
The contrast of viewpoints originates from discrepancies between the U.S. DNI’s report and European intelligence reports from the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany. The European reports suggest Iran’s regime is actively building a nuclear weapons program, whiles the U.S. report contradicts this.
Adding more complexity, the Dutch General and Intelligence Security Service (AIVD) assessed Tehran’s progress in developing weapons-grade uranium as moving them closer to a potential first nuclear test.
Meanwhile, a U.S. State Department spokesperson stated, “We are aware of the European reports regarding Iran’s nuclear program. We do not comment on matters of intelligence or have comments beyond what is in U.S. National Intelligence Assessment.”
This news article was partially created with the assistance of artificial intelligence and edited and fact-checked by a human editor.
