Weapons Program

U.S intelligence agencies have concluded in a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in fall 2003 and that Tehran is now "less determined to develop nuclear weapons." The new findings will make it more difficult for the Bush administration to gain domestic and international support for the use of military force against Iran. The findings also will complicate efforts to arrange a third round of U.N. sanctions against Iran and could open the door to a policy of diplomatic engagement.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush and his aides spent a second day trying to keep pressure on Iran, with the White House saying yesterday that the disclosure that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 would not affect conditions for opening negotiations with the Islamic republic. As Monday's report by the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies continued to reverberate, raising doubts about the U.S. push to punish Iran, Bush consulted with top advisers on their talks with counterparts from Britain, Germany, France and Russia.

THE UNITED STATES and its coalition partners must keep the pressure on Iraq to open up fully to United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspectors. This includes the 63 installations that Iraq claims to be out of bounds to inspection as "presidential sites."The Iraqis' claim is nonsense. This crisis exists because Iraq has stonewalled and played cat-and-mouse and retained biological and chemical weapons of mass death and missiles to carry them -- if not its nuclear weapons program -- in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions ending the 1991 gulf war.There can be no compromise on weapons inspection.

WASHINGTON -- The way in which the latest crisis with Iraq ended all but ensures that further confrontations will arise between the United States and Saddam Hussein.Iraq allowed the United Nations inspectors, including Americans, to return in full force. But Baghdad failed to commit itself explicitly to any closer cooperation with the inspectors, who are trying to find and destroy Baghdad's dangerous weapons programs.As a result, the inspectors' frustrating 6 1/2 -year search could continue indefinitely -- until they can be sure that Iraq is no longer trying to hide any biological, chemical or other weapons.

TEL AVIV, Israel -- Iran is much closer to producing nuclear weapons than previously thought, and could be less than five years away from having an atomic bomb, several senior U.S. and Israeli officials say."The date by which Iran will have nuclear weapons is no longer 10 years from now," a senior official said recently, referring to previous estimates."If the Iranians maintain this intensive effort to get everything they need, they could have all their components in two years. Then it will be just a matter of technology and research.

UNITED NATIONS -- After four years of denial, the Iraqi government, desperate for the lifting of international sanctions against it, has finally admitted that it developed a powerful, offensive biological weapons program in the years leading to the Persian Gulf war, United Nations officials reported yesterday.But Iraq asserted that it had destroyed all the biological weapons a few months before allied planes began bombing Iraq in January 1991.U.N. officials said they would soon try to verify this claim.

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's top nuclear official said yesterday that his country intended to build about 10 nuclear power plants in the next two decades but denied that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.The official, Reza Amrollahi, also said that last year he signed a formal contract with China for two nuclear power reactors and that Chinese experts had completed a feasibility study and had begun to draw up blueprints and engineering reports for a site in southern Iran.Iran has already made a "down payment" for the project, which will cost $800 million to $900 million and involve training by Chinese experts, said Mr. Amrollahi, director of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.

WASHINGTON -- Iraq covered up evidence of a biological weapons program to develop cholera, tuberculosis and the plague that was much larger than previously suspected, U.N. officials disclosed yesterday.In the 1980s, the Iraqi government imported enough material to cultivate 3.3 tons of bacteria, said Rolf Ekeus, chairman of the United Nations Special Commission in charge of Iraqi disarmament.When confronted last week, Iraq claimed that the material was imported for medical use. But when U.N. inspectors asked for the growth media or documentation about it, Iraq claimed that both were destroyed during 1991 uprisings after Operation Desert Storm.

WASHINGTON -- Russia is concealing efforts to develop advanced chemical weapons, despite its pledge to disclose details of its poison gas program to the United States, Clinton administration officials said yesterday.Zel,.5L That assessment illustrates the problems that Washington has in dealing with the new Russia, as Moscow has pledged to cooperate with the West, but has been dragging its feet on putting some important arms control accords into effect.Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev signed a separate East-West accord, enrolling his country in NATO's Partnership for Peace program.

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea has refused to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to conduct tests of spent fuel that could clear up a mystery surrounding the nation's nuclear weapons program, an agency official said yesterday.North Korea had indicated that it would begin replacing the fuel rods in its biggest nuclear reactor next week and had invited the inspectors to observe the process.But the atomic energy agency, a branch of the United Nations, had also been seeking assurances that it could take measurements of the spent fuel, which could indicate whether North Korea has diverted any for reprocessing for its weapons program.

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran has begun to triple its capacity to enrich uranium, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear weapons or power plants, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced yesterday on state television. Iran has about 3,000 centrifuges operating, according to international inspectors, and Ahmadinejad said his country had begun installing 6,000 more. Arms control experts estimate that 3,000 centrifuges, operating continuously for one year, can produce enough highly enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb.

TEHRAN, Iran -- In his first formal news conference since a U.S. intelligence report last week undercut claims that Iran was secretly developing nuclear weapons, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck an unusually mild tone yesterday, calling for dialogue with the United States and forgoing his usual anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric. He also denied that Iran had resumed a secret nuclear weapons program, a claim made by an Iranian exile group, Mujahedeen-e-Khalq. The group, listed by the State Department and the European Union as a terrorist organization, cited unidentified sources in Iran as saying the Islamic republic restarted its program in 2004.

TEL AVIV, Israel -- The top U.S. military officer attempted to reassure Israeli defense leaders yesterday that the United States still views Iran as a serious threat to the Jewish state, even as the Israelis disagree with an American intelligence finding that Iran ceased its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, discussed the National Intelligence Estimate of Iran's nuclear program with the head of Israel's military and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in back-to-back meetings here, where the report has provoked widespread debate over U.S. intentions.

Some analysts are arguing that because last week's National Intelligence Estimate concluded that Iran halted its covert nuclear program in 2003, sanctions against Iran are no longer necessary. In fact, the opposite conclusion could be drawn from the report, which suggests that Iran is vulnerable to outside pressure on the nuclear issue - and much more still needs to be done on this front. In 2005, the U.S. embarked on a new strategy designed to ratchet up the financial pressure against Tehran for its nuclear-related activities and its support for terrorism.

U.S intelligence agencies have concluded in a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in fall 2003 and that Tehran is now "less determined to develop nuclear weapons." The new findings will make it more difficult for the Bush administration to gain domestic and international support for the use of military force against Iran. The findings also will complicate efforts to arrange a third round of U.N. sanctions against Iran and could open the door to a policy of diplomatic engagement.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush and his aides spent a second day trying to keep pressure on Iran, with the White House saying yesterday that the disclosure that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 would not affect conditions for opening negotiations with the Islamic republic. As Monday's report by the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies continued to reverberate, raising doubts about the U.S. push to punish Iran, Bush consulted with top advisers on their talks with counterparts from Britain, Germany, France and Russia.

WASHINGTON -- In a surprising new report, the U.S. intelligence community said yesterday that Iran halted its secret military program to develop nuclear weapons four years ago, most likely in response to international criticism. The new National Intelligence Estimate runs counter to Bush administration warnings about Iran's weapons development program, specifically its suggestion that Iran is pushing to build a nuclear bomb. The report said Iran's effort to turn nuclear material into a bomb ended in 2003 and has not been restarted.

BEIJING --The chief American negotiator at talks to address North Korea's nuclear program said yesterday that the parties could reach a new agreement on rolling back the North's bomb-making effort this week but that the prospects for a meaningful breakthrough remained uncertain. The chief negotiator, Christopher Hill, told reporters that the United States, North Korea and the four other countries participating in the Chinese-sponsored talks had begun discussing details of how to implement a 2005 draft agreement on ending the North's nuclear program and that the tenor of the often-tortuous discussions had improved.

WASHINGTON -- The welcome nuclear framework agreement with North Korea signed in Beijing last week is a belated triumph of pragmatism over ideology and suggests a way ahead on a deal with Iran. The preliminary deal provides an outline for a more detailed agreement to be negotiated among North Korea and the other five parties - the United States, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan - to the still-precarious nuclear talks. The main elements of the deal are essentially the same as the agreement nearly concluded at the end of the second term of President Bill Clinton and gift-wrapped for President Bush in his first term.

BEIJING -- North Korea's promise yesterday to end its development of nuclear weapons and accept international inspections was a surprising breakthrough in talks in Beijing, but also left formidable obstacles for the United States and North Korea's other negotiating partners. North Korea's pledge - the first the country has offered in writing to dismantle its nuclear weapons program - was part of a joint statement of principles issued by the diplomats of six nations, including the United States.