Barak to tell President Bush: Iran still working on nuclear arms

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Defense Minister Ehud Barak will urge President George W. Bush to reassess a US intelligence report saying that Iran has halted its nuclear weapons program when the two meet this week during Bush's visit to Israel, an official in Barak's office said Monday. Barak will tell Bush that while Israeli intelligence does not have data that differ greatly from that cited last month in the US National Intelligence Estimate, its analysts conclude that Iran is continuing to try to produce nuclear arms, an defense official told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity as he was barred from publicly commenting on the talks in advance. A meeting of Israel's Security Cabinet Sunday, attended by Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, decided to share with the Americans at least some of Israel's intelligence on Iran's nuclear efforts, other defense officials said, without giving details. The US estimate said that Iran dropped its nuclear weapons program in 2003 but continues to enrich uranium that could be transferred to a secret weapons project.