NIE’s Implications on Iran (Rep. Ron Klein)

Rep. Ron Klein is vice chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and the House Iran Working Group.

This week’s National Intelligence Estimate on Iran is a check on the Bush administration’s recent saber-rattling. In October of this year, President Bush warned that for Tehran to possess such a weapon raised the risk of a “World War III.” The rhetoric from both President Bush and President Ahmadinejad of Iran has escalated this crisis to the point where resolution seemed impossible. The NIE sheds new light on the crisis.

The NIE concluded that Iran had a nuclear weapons program in 2003, but that it stopped the program “primarily in response to international pressure.

The NIE assessed that Iran has not restarted its nuclear weapons program. However, the report states that Iran continues to enrich uranium. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran continues to expand its Natanz enrichment plant without much transparency. The NIE reports that in 2007, Iran made “significant progress