Normalverkehr

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran lacks weapons-grade highly enriched uranium and has not yet made a decision on whether to produce any, U.S. intelligence officials told Congress on Tuesday.

The officials — Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Maples — also said recent Iranian missile tests were not directly related to its nuclear activities. They said the two programs were believed to be on separate development tracks.

Blair had been asked to clarify recent conflicting statements from defense officials on Iran’s nuclear program.

“We assess now that Iran does not have any highly enriched uranium,” Blair said. “We assess that Iran has not yet made that decision,” to convert the low-enriched uranium it is making to the weapons-grade material.

Maples said Iran’s launch in February of the Safir Space Launch Vehicle “shows progress” in technologies used to make intercontinental ballistic missiles.

But Blair said the nuclear and missile programs are “separate decisions,” and both officials said they believed Iran had not yet made a decision on whether to proceed with its nuclear program.

(Reporting by Randall Mikkelsen, Editing by Eric Beech)

Links:

• Director of National Intelligence (DNI)