U.S. Agencies See No Move by Iran to Build a Bomb

[kraf001]

Iran has already enriched their uranium beyond what is necessary for peaceful purposes. To any sane individual this means Iran wants nukes. However I do like watching all the naysayers who are more than willing to give that thug regime the benefit of the doubt. Hilarious.

I think this is more your feeling than facts. Can you please enlighten us what is the limit for peaceful purpose? we know Iran has not enriched anything to weapon grade (85%+) so how did they go beyond peaceful purpose?

Or are you saying the limit should be defined by West? why?

Iran has enough uranium to supply both power generation and medical research reactors, any "sane" Iranian would say they should set up massive fuel production infrastructure that can supply internal and external customers!

If you take away Israel from region, Iran is the most advanced country in terms of science and medicine. any "sane" Iranian would say country should supply and support the internal research teams with any nuclear product and infrastructure they need.

I guess the issue is deeper than Nuclear power, the issue is that every time Iran tries to do anything being stem cell research or nano technology or nuclear science, non-Iranians try to set the boundaries in which Iran can work in these fields.

[IRN34]

Iran has already enriched their uranium beyond what is necessary for peaceful purposes. To any sane individual this means Iran wants nukes. However I do like watching all the naysayers who are more than willing to give that thug regime the benefit of the doubt. Hilarious.

Iran just wants the capacity to build the nukes in a very short time if it feels endangered

[StateMachine]

Could be the Iranians are aiming for Israeli-style strategic ambiguity.

Only if they get an exit from the NPT will they amass an undeclared arsenal. One of the easiest exits would be an ineffectual Israeli strike.

Otherwise given no stupid moves on either side, they will drift into a Brazil type status. Brazil's weaponization status is more ambiguous than Japan. Were I looking to tangle with Brazil over something of strategic importance, I would assume they have nukes as part of the calculation.

[Bankoletti]

Iran has already enriched their uranium beyond what is necessary for peaceful purposes.

Iran has enriched uranium to 20% - that's precisely the level needed for scientific, educational and medical purposes.

However, I agree that in my opinion they've probably set up everything in such a manner that if attacked, then they have an excuse to pull out of NPT and develope nukes aka nuclear deterrence ASAP. Like North Korea did.

[Mackie]

Why the sanctions then?

Iraq goes down the river.
Astan goes down the river.
Evolution in muslim countries everywhere.

Gaps a strong Iran could fill.
It's a pest and cholera decision for the US.
A military invention could heat up the area even more, raise the power of islamic powers in the young democracies.
Sanctions are not efficient enough to prevent them building a bomb.

The ME has changed. Bombing out a dictatorship is easy. But how justify a war against a democratic islamist country?

[[WDW]Megaraptor]

Doesn't the IRGC have its own, underground enrichment facilities outside of IAEA inspections?