International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, August 20, 2010

The New York Times reported on Friday that US officials have "persuaded" Israel it will take Iran at least a year to build a nuclear weapon, a claim that came under immediate criticism from American experts on the issue.

Gary Samore, the top adviser to US President Barack Obama on nuclear issues, told the Times he thinks it would take Tehran "roughly a year" to turn low-enriched uranium into weapons-grade material, based on US intelligence and international inspectors' reports. "We think that they have roughly a year dash time," Samore insisted. "A year is a very long period of time."

But Jeffrey Goldberg, who just wrote a major essay on the topic in the Atlantic Monthly, responded today that the article does not quote any Israeli official as confirming that Jerusalem has been convinced by the American assurances.

Further, Samore’s claims that Iran's enrichment centrifuges are only working at about 20% efficiency were quickly called into question by atomic expert David Albright and others.

"Either they don't have the machines, or they have real questions about their technical competence," Samore had said.

But according to the latest IAEA data from May, each machine is achieving two to three times that efficiency, and perhaps even more, countered Albright and other scholars at the Institute for Science and International Security.

"The 20% efficiency appears to derive from earlier calculations which were misinterpretations of the available data," they stated. "Problems in operating centrifuge cascades and possibly sabotage have set back the Iranian centrifuge program. However it is a mistake to believe that Iran is incompetent or is not progressing in operating large numbers of centrifuges."

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Japan’s largest daily newspaper on Friday that he is now prepared to resume talks with leading world powers over his nation's renegade nuclear program.

"We promise to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent if a fuel supply is ensured," Ahmadinejad told the Yomiuri Shimbun. "Iranian people support dialogue. Dialogue should be done with respect and fairness. Unfortunately Western countries always hold out threats, trying to keep advantage in negotiations. This is not dialogue. The purpose of dialogue is understanding, not threatening."

In related news, the Iranian Foreign Ministry complained on Thursday that a report by the US State Department labeling Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism, was biased.

"While the US' track record shows that it has been the greatest sponsor of terrorism for the past three decades, it continues to cover up its measures by blaming and leveling false accusations against other countries," the English-language Press TV quoted Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying. "The Islamic Republic of Iran pays particular attention to collaborating with the international community in fighting against terrorism"

Almost at the same time Thursday night, senior Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Karamirad told a meeting of the Parliamentary Commission on National Security and Foreign Policy that if Israel or the US stage military strikes against Iran’s renegade nuclear program the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) will use its "network of agents" to mount an asymmetrical counter-offensive against Western targets throughout the Middle East, Latin America and Europe.

"Iranian nation defeated Saddam’s regime which had full access to state-of-the-art military equipment and the western governments should learn from others misfortunes," Karamirad warned.

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