US: Iran undecided on nuclear bomb, Israel 'more concerned'

Iran has not decided whether to build a nuclear weapon bomb and does not have any highly enriched uranium to create one, senior US intelligence officials say. But Tehran is continuing to enrich uranium and is investigating how to build long-range missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads, Dennis Blair, US director of intelligence, told the US Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. "Although we do not know whether Iran currently intends to develop nuclear weapons, we assess Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop them," he said. Tehran could have enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb from 2010 to 2015, according to most US intelligence agencies believe, Blair said.  The US state department predicts that Iran could have a sufficient amount of highly enriched uranium by 2013, he said.

Israel 'more concerned'

The US and Europe have expressed fears that Iran's nuclear programme is geared towards the production of a bomb, while Tehran says it is only looking to generate electricity.Israel is more concerned than the US about Iran's nuclear programme, Blair said. "The Israelis are far more concerned about it, and they take more of a worst-case approach to these things from their point of view," he said.