Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Iran, despite its agreement with the West, would continue to enhance its nuclear weapons capability.

Officials said the intelligence community has dismissed the prospect that Iran would slow down its nuclear weapons program.

The officials said the community, despite assurances by the White House, assessed that Teheran would continue with nuclear weapons research and could stockpile enriched uranium at undeclared facilities.

“It wants to improve its nuclear and missile capabilities while avoiding severe repercussions, such as a military strike or regime-threatening sanctions,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said. “We do not know if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons.”

In testimony to the House Intelligence Committee on Feb. 4, Clapper said Iran, in wake of its agreement with P5+1 in November 2013, did not revise its goals of becoming a nuclear power. The intelligence chief said Iran continues to advance in such areas as uranium enrichment, nuclear reactors and ballistic missiles.

“These technical advancements strengthen our assessment that Iran has
the scientific, technical, and industrial capacity to eventually produce
nuclear weapons,” Clapper said. “This makes the central issue its political
will to do so.”

The intelligence community warned that Iran would not cooperate with the
United States in the Gulf or the rest of the Middle East. Clapper said Iran
was aiding Shi’ite rebels in Bahrain and Yemen as well as arming Palestinian
militias.

“Iran will continue to act assertively abroad in ways that run counter
to U.S. interests and worsen regional conflicts,” Clapper said. “Iranian
officials almost certainly believe that their support has
been instrumental in sustaining [President Bashar] Assad’s regime in Syria
and will probably continue support during 2014 to bolster the regime.”

Clapper said Iran’s allies were also developing weapons of mass
destruction. He cited Syria, believed to have maintained a chemical weapons
program, including a huge stockpile of mustard gas, sarin and VX.

“We judge that some elements of Syria’s biological warfare program might
have advanced beyond the research and development stage and might be capable
of limited agent production, based on the duration of its longstanding
program,” Clapper said. “To the best of our knowledge, Syria has not
successfully weaponized biological agents in an effective delivery system,
but it possesses conventional weapon systems that could be modified for
biological-agent delivery.”

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