US and Israel differ on Iranian nuclear ambitions

United States and Israeli assessments of Iran's nuclear aspirations appear again to be at odds, following a new assertion by Tel Aviv that Tehran has "crossed the technological threshold" in its bid to produce a nuclear weapon.

In testimony to the Israeli cabinet on 8 March, Major General Amos Yadlin, head of military intelligence, said that for Iran, from this point on, "reaching a military-grade nuclear capability is a question of synchronising strategy with production of a nuclear bomb".

While acknowledging that Iran is keeping its options open, such predictions are in line with Israel's "worst-case approach", US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told the Senate Armed Services Committee on 10 March.

Appearing jointly with Lieutenant General Michael D Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Blair said the overall impression within the intelligence community was that "Iran has not decided to press forward... to have a nuclear weapon on top of a ballistic missile".