US officials: Usable Iran bomb not imminent

A US military attack on Iran is still an option to try to stop or slow progress to a bomb, Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy said, but not an attractive one.

President Barack Obama has said he will not "take any options off the table with respect to Iran," Flournoy said. "Now, that means to me that military options remain on the table." The administration has not concluded that a nuclear Iran is inevitable, Flournoy said, and considers the nation's potential to develop and use such weapons a primary national security threat.

Having said that Iran could amass sufficient highly enriched uranium to build one bomb in roughly a year, Gen.

James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that a nation driving for a weapon generally needs three to five additional years to make the leap to a bomb it can field.

The timeline Cartwright cited Wednesday could be shortened if Iran pursued ways to deliver a weapon at the same time as it worked to build a bomb, Kazinform cites The Arab News.

See www.arabnews.com