London, September 30: British intelligence services believe that Iran is working towards a nuclear warhead, the Financial Times reported Wednesday – one day ahead of a key meeting in Geneva on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
The Financial Times report said that British spies believe Iran has secretly been designing a nuclear warhead since late 2004 or early 2005,” in contrast to US assessments, which say Iran gave up weapons design work in 2003.
The paper said that the new British assessment implied that Iran was making faster-than-expected progress toward a nuclear weapon.
Last week an exiled Iranian opposition group in Paris said that Iran was conducting research on nuclear weapons at two locations near Tehran.
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeid Jalili is due to meet with representatives of the five permanent United Nations Security Council member states – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – plus Germany, in Geneva on Thursday for talks on the nuclear issue.
–Agenices