US vs British Intelligence on Iran - US says 'no threat'/British spies say 'threat is real'

“We will never bargain about our sovereign rights,” Mr Salehi said. “If we have the right to enrich uranium ... convert uranium ... have fuel fabrication ... design reactors and manufacture reactors, we will do them and will not freeze them.”

SHOOT: Iran is the only theocracy in the world. A theocracy is a country ruled by men of faith, rather than politicians. As such, the leadership are slippery, and otherwise hard to predict. probably more so than your average politician.

clipped from www.ft.com Britain’s intelligence services say that Iran has been secretly designing a nuclear warhead “since late 2004 or early 2005”, an assessment that suggests Tehran has embarked on the final steps towards acquiring nuclear weapons capability. As world powers prepare to confront Iran on Thursday on its nuclear ambitions, the Financial Times has learnt that the UK now judges that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, ordered the resumption of the country’s weapons programme four years ago. Iran is already under pressure after the revelation last week that it has been building an undeclared site to enrich uranium. By contrast, US intelligence services remain firm in their conclusion that while Iran may ultimately want a bomb, the country halted weapons design work in 2003 and probably has not restarted that effort as of 2007. Britain has always privately expressed scepticism about the US assessment on Iran but is only now firmly asserting that the weapons programme restarted in 2004-05.