No, Iran Is Not Pursuing a Nuclear Weapons Program

There is really no excuse at this point for scholars and analysts to make this mistake about Iran’s nuclear program.

Dan Drezner needs a fact-checker:

When one examines each country in this nascent Legion of Doom, the United States has valid grounds for sanctions and other forms of containment. Iran has been pursuing a nuclear weapons program [bold mine-DL] and a ballistic missile program, and expended considerable funds to destabilize U.S. allies in the Middle East.

There is really no excuse at this point for scholars and analysts to make this mistake about Iran’s nuclear program. Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program, and it is not pursuing one. Whatever work it did in this area in the past, it has not had one for twenty years. Multiple National Intelligence Estimates since then have confirmed that Iran is not working on building nuclear weapons. CIA Director Bill Burns confirmed this view as recently as last month:

To the best of our knowledge, we don't believe that the Supreme Leader in Iran has yet made a decision to resume the weaponization program that we judge that they suspended or stopped at the end of 2003.

It is simply false to say that Iran has been pursuing a nuclear weapons program.