Former US deputy assistant secretary for non- proliferation Mark Fitzpatrick said Tuesday that the startling retreat made by American intelligence agencies on Iran's nuclear program represented a 'new and important development'.
The findings by the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) 'shows that lessons have been learned from Iraq. The US intelligence agencies are determined to show their independence from political influence', Fitzpatrick said.
"It removes any possibility of a military strike in the next year.
There would be no substantive cause and no public support," he said.
Fitzpatrick, who is now a senior fellow on non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, told the BBC that the NIE report evidencing no Iranian nuclear program was an 'astounding conclusion'.
The confirmation comes after both the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei and Russian President Vladimir Putin making similar comments.
The Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday that the NIE shock report had 'undercut' the US Administration by disclosing for the first time that Iran has not been pursuing a nuclear weapons development program.
"It is a startling admission from an administration that regularly portrays Iran as the biggest threat to the Middle East and the world," the daily said.
But despite the findings, the British government denied it had made mistakes over Iran's nuclear program, insisting that Iran's civilian nuclear program remained a 'very serious issue'.
"We need to examine the detail of this, but in broad terms the government believes it confirms that we were right to be worried about Iran seeking to develop nuclear weapons," Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official spokesman claimed.
http://www1.irna.ir/en/news/view
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