Iranian nuclear weapon

New intelligence report estimates Teheran has overcome technical difficulties in enriching uranium and could have enough bomb-grade material for a single nuclear weapon by 2010, CBS reports The revised US estimate rests on word that the Iranians have overcome the difficulties stalling the operation of the P2 centrifuges at the Natanz plant at the requisite speeds for producing weapons-grade uranium. The low-grade material was good enough for a primitive device, but not a bomb. Although US intelligence still considers an Iranian nuclear weapon by 2010 as a worst-case scenario, CBS said, Pentagon officials say the new report narrows the window in which Israel might launch a preemptive strike against Iran, as Israel is the country most threatened by the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon. Even with sufficient bomb-grade uranium, Iran must still master the technology for building a bomb or a warhead which can be delivered by air or missile. All the timelines released thus far, including the CBS disclosure of Fri. April 27, are no more than estimates. None of the intelligence agencies, American, Israeli, or even Iranian, can precisely date the moment of breakthrough, or predict when Tehran will acquire the technology it lacks on the black market, media on line reported. Also, Ehoud Olmert’s estimate that Iran’s nuclear program is far off and can be halted by diplomacy and sanctions was offered in a speech this week to American Jewish leaders. Wide of the mark, it was produced as anodyne for an audience nervous of a US-Israeli war against Iran. The CBS reference to a possible Israeli pre-emptive strike involving the US was a roundabout way of intimating that American military action against Iran involving Israel has moved closer to reality. The Olmert government would not dream of going it alone against Iran, as did Menahem Begin in 1981, when he ordered the bombing of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor.(10,23)