Bush says Iran remains a threat

WASHINGTON – President Bush said Tuesday that despite a new intelligence assessment concluding that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program, the country still posed a danger and must stop enriching uranium.

Bush repeated that “all options are on the table” for dealing with Tehran, and he urged world leaders to keep pressure on the government. But diplomats and analysts said the new report lessened the likelihood of a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and could hamper the U.S. campaign to win support for new economic sanctions.

“It will be much more difficult to get Russia and China and the reluctant Europeans to go for tough sanctions,” said Gary Samore, a top arms control official in the Clinton White House. Samore, director of studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that, although the administration would continue to pursue such penalties, “it will be without much effect.”

He predicted that 2008 would be “a lost year” and the issue would be left for the next president.

At a news conference, Bush called the National Intelligence Estimate released Monday a “warning signal” and said it lent support to his unyielding approach to Iran.

“This report is not a ‘OK , everybody needs to relax and quit’ report,” Bush said. “This is a report that says what has happened in the past could be repeated.”

The assessment, representing the consensus of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, concluded with “high confidence” that Iran had stopped developing nuclear weapon designs and had ended covert efforts in autumn 2003 to produce highly enriched uranium, a key ingredient in a nuclear bomb. It said the agencies had “moderate confidence” that Iran had not resumed the program as of the middle of this year.

Philip Zelikow, a former senior policy adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said the report complicated the Bush administration’s diplomatic agenda and would make it more difficult for U.S. allies in Europe “to sustain the efforts politically.”Israeli officials questioned the new intelligence findings. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel believed that although Iran had suspended its weapons program, it since had resumed work.

The Security Council already has imposed two layers of sanctions against Iran for failing to suspend its nuclear activities. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilizad, said Tuesday that Washington would try to win approval for a third sanctions resolution.