Ahmadinejad: US intel report victory for Iran

The US intelligence report released on Monday concluded that Iran had stopped its weapons programme in late 2003 and shown no signs since of resuming it, representing a sharp turnaround from a previous intelligence assessment in 2005.

“This is a declaration of victory for the Iranian nation against the world powers over the nuclear issue,” Ahmadinejad told thousands of people during a visit to Ilam province in western Iran.

“This was a final shot to those who, in the past several years, spread a sense of threat and concern in the world through lies of nuclear weapons,” Ahmadinejad said, drawing celebratory whistles from the crowd.

Russia’s Foreign Minister, meanwhile, said there was no proof that Iran has ever run a nuclear weapons programme. “Data that we have seen don’t allow to say with certainty that Iran has ever had a nuclear weapons programme,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday when asked to comment on the US intelligence report.

Iran has touted the report as vindication of its claims that its nuclear program is peaceful and Iranian officials insist that Washington should take a less hawkish stance and drop attempts to impose new sanctions in light of the report’s surprise conclusions.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has disputed the US conclusions, saying Israeli intelligence believes Iran is still trying to develop nuclear weapons.

President Bush defended his approach on Tuesday, and Rice said it would be a “big mistake” to ease any diplomatic pressure on Iran despite the new US findings.

“I continue to see Iran as a dangerous power in international politics,” Rice told reporters traveling with her to Ethiopia where she planned to see African leaders. “At this moment, it doesn’t appear to have an active weaponisation programme. That frankly is good news. But if it causes people to say, ‘Oh, well, then we don’t need to worry about what the Iranians are doing,’ I think we will have made a big mistake.”

The finding comes at a time of escalating tensions between the...