Agence France-Presse,
WASHINGTON: The United States refused to rule out a military attack on Iran and vowed to step up pressure on Tehran, despite a surprise US intelligence report saying Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.
Iran said the US report had vindicated its stance, while UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said the document could help defuse tensions.
But US President George W. Bush was adamant that the Islamic state was a threat and called on US allies to step up pressure.
“Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon,” he told a White House press conference, a day after the new intelligence assessment.
“The best diplomacy, effective diplomacy, is one in which all options are on the table,” he said.
“The best way to ensure that the world is peaceful in the future is for the international community to continue to work together to say to the Iranians we are going to isolate you.”
The National Intelligence Estimate said US allegations about Iran's atomic goals had been exaggerated for at least two years, although it could have the capability to make a nuclear weapon by 2015.
Iran responded positively to the report.
“Looks like there are wise people in the United States who seek to find a way out of the predicament which US leaders have created, and this report might help that,” said Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, quoted by state news agency IRNA..
“If America corrects its past approach we welcome that.”
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili also responded optimistically. Asked if the report would improve the conditions for resolving the nuclear standoff, he replied: “Normally it should be this way.”
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head ElBaradei, whose inspectors have been investigating Iran's nuclear drive for four years, called for immediate negotiations between Iran and its western critics.
But US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice vowed to press ahead for tougher UN sanctions against Iran, saying the United States and the five other powers dealing with Iran on the issue must maintain their diplomatic pressure.
“There is time for diplomacy to work, but there isn't time to stop and say 'we don't need the diplomacy,'” Rice said.
A diplomat to the UN Security Council, asking to remain anonymous, confirmed the six powers were expecting to soon begin work on drafting a resolution for new sanctions against Tehran to go before the council.
But China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya suggested the six powers' agreement to seek new sanctions could be called into question by the US intelligence assessment.
Pressed by reporters on whether the assessment might make new sanctions against Iran less likely in the near term, he said: “I think Council members will have to consider that, because … now things have changed.”
China and Russia have been reluctant to join UN sanctions actions against Iran.
Germany and Britain both said the report vindicated Europe's approach of embarking on negotiations offering carrot and stick incentives to Iran.
“The report confirms we were right to be worried about Iran seeking to develop nuclear weapons,” said the spokesman of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. “The risk of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon remains a very serious issue.”
In October, Bush raised the specter of “World War III” or a “nuclear holocaust” if Iran obtained an atomic arsenal.
The US report, a consensus view of all 16 US spy agencies, said Iran appeared “less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005.”
It concluded that “the program probably was halted primarily in response to international pressure (which) suggests that Iran may be more vulnerable to influence on the issue than we judged previously.”
The assessment said US agencies had “moderate confidence” that Iran would be able to produce enough enriched uranium for a weapon sometime between 2010 and 2015.
In a swift reaction to his Tuesday speech, Democratic White House hopefuls accused Bush of “saber-rattling” and argued the new report rendered his hawkish policy obselete.
“He should seize this opportunity and engage in serious diplomacy using both carrots and sticks,” frontrunner Hillary Clinton said.
Clinton's top rival Senator Barack Obama warned that despite the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran released Monday, the Bush administration would not modify its tough line on Iran.
“It is absolutely clear that this administration and President Bush continues to not let facts get in the way of his ideology.”
“Let's get this straight, in 2003 (Iran) stopped their program, you cannot trust this president, he is not trustworthy,” said Senator Joseph Biden.
“It is outrageous, intolerable and it must stop … the president of the United States — it's like watching a rerun of his statements on Iraq five years earlier.”
