Former CIA officer says new info raises chances of Israeli preemptive strike.
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Iran has overcome technical difficulties in enriching uranium and could have enough material for a single nuclear weapon in less than three years CBS News quoted a new intelligence report as saying on Friday morning.
Despite, there being no change in the official estimate that it would take Iran until 2015 to become a nuclear power, David Albright, a leading expert, disagreed was unconvinced.
Iran and the Democrats
"I think Iran can get enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon sooner than that," Albright told CBS. "I think the 2015 number reflects too much skepticism about Iran's technical capabilities, and they are making progress."
Although US intelligence still considers an Iranian nuclear weapon by 2010 as a worst-case scenario, Pentagon officials said the new intelligence report increased the chances that Israel might launch a preemptive strike against Iran, as it did in 1981 against an Iraqi nuclear reactor.
Former CIA officer Bruce Riedel said this latest intelligence would increase the chances of an Israeli strike launched with American-built warplanes, said CBS.
"The Israelis have long believed that Iran is closer than US intelligence believes it is," Riedel said. "If they now hear that the Americans think it's getting closer as well, it puts pressure on Israel to take its own action."
Riedel went on to say that an Israeli strike would be seen in Iran as no different from an American strike and could involve the US in a war against a much tougher opponent than Iraq.
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