Iran's nuclear weapons program reportedly still active; US previously denied it
A new intelligence report from Austria says Iran is still working on its nuclear weapons. The report claims that Iran is trying to develop long-range missiles that could carry these weapons.This report goes against what the United States said earlier this year. According to the New York Post, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told the Senate Intelligence Committee in March that Iran is "not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003."advertisementBut, an Austrian report claims otherwise. Their domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, wrote in a new report on Monday, "In order to assert and enforce its regional political power ambitions, the Islamic Republic of Iran is striving for comprehensive rearmament, with nuclear weapons to make the regime immune to attack and to expand and consolidate its dominance in the Middle East and beyond."
The report also claims that Iran's nuclear weapons program is "well advanced" and that it has a stock of missiles that could carry nuclear warheads to long distances.INTELLIGENCE SPLIT ON IRAN'S TRUE INTENTIONSThe Austrian intelligence report may complicate things for the US. According to Fox News Digital, the data from Austria could make it harder for US President Donald Trump to negotiate with Iran's leaders over their nuclear plans. advertisement"President Trump is committed to Iran never obtaining a nuclear weapon or the capacity to build one," a White House official said as quoted by Fox News.The Austrian report also claims that Iran has created "sophisticated sanctions-evasion networks," which have helped Russia. The report listed Iran 99 times in its 211 pages and called it a threat to Austria's democracy.The agency noted that, in Iran's Vienna embassy, the intelligence officers could be posing as diplomats."Iranian intelligence services are familiar with developing and implementing circumvention strategies for the procurement of military equipment, proliferation-sensitive technologies, and materials for weapons of mass destruction," the Austrian agency said.Asadollah Asadi, an Iranian diplomat stationed in Vienna, was found guilty by a Belgian court in 2021. In 2018, he was convicted of organizing a bombing at an opposition rally in France that was attended by President Trump's personal attorney at the time, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.Fox News reported in 2023 that European intelligence documents exposed Iran's efforts to get around US and EU sanctions in order to acquire nuclear weapons testing technology. The reports claim that these initiatives took place both before and after the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, also referred to as the JCPOA.Must Watch
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