Iran could produce a nuclear weapon by mid-2014, a recent U.S. report has revealed. The report, prepared by a group of U.S. nonproliferation experts, said Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for one or more nuclear bombs by mid-2014, and the United States and its allies should intensify sanctions on Tehran before that point is reached. President Barack Obama should also clearly state that the U.S. will take military action to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, the report said. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has expressed concern that Iran's nuclear program has a military dimension. Tehran, which says its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes, calls those allegations baseless. "Based on the current trajectory of Iran's nuclear program, we estimate that Iran could reach critical capability in mid-2014," the report said. It defined "critical capability" as the point at which Iran would be able to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for one or more bombs without detection by the West. By mid-2014, Iran would have enough time to build a secret uranium-enrichment site or significantly increase the number of centrifuges for its nuclear program, said David Albright, one of the project's co-chairmen and president of the Institute for Science and International Security. "We don't think there is any secret enrichment plant making significant secret uranium enrichment right now," he told Reuters. But there is a "real worry" that Iran would build such a plant, he said. The report recommends that the U.S. and its allies intensify sanctions pressure on Iran prior to that point because once Tehran acquires enough weapon-grade enriched uranium it would be "far more difficult to stop the program militarily." The report coincides with another U.S. report on Iran's intelligence activities, prepared by the U.S. Defense Department. It states that Iran has been using signals-intelligence stations in the Golan Heights to spy on Israel since 2006. "Two Iranian-Syrian SIGINT stations funded by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps reportedly have been active since 2006, one in the al-Jazirah region in northern Syria and the other on the Golan Heights," the report says. Iran was reportedly planning to set up two additional signals intelligence stations in northern Syria, designed mainly to provide information on Israel to Hezbollah, the report says. The report further notes that Iran's Intelligence and Security Ministry provides Hezbollah with logistical and material support and uses Hezbollah as a proxy in its intelligence operations.
