With the International Atomic Energy Agency about to release its latest report pertaining to the ongoing nuclear program in Iran, it appears the UN watchdog agency will confirm what Israeli intelligence reports have been shouting for years. Iran is working tenaciously to build a nuclear bomb and is not advancing its nuclear program for education, science, medicine or any other reason than to become a nuclear power.

Foreign media reports explain that Iran received assistance from senior Russian scientists, who trained Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s people, permitting the advancement of the nuclear program.

Back in Yerushalayim, leaders are concerned that Ahmadinejad is dangerously close to building an atom bomb, and Israel has been signaling it will not sit back and permit such a scenario from becoming a reality.

Despite the media hype, it is clear today that President Barak Obama realizes an Israeli military strike is of real concern, compelling the White House to take a more aggressive approach, working to persuade both Russia and China to approve stiff Security Council sanctions – which is not too likely to occur.

In response to media reports surrounding the IAEA report to be released in the coming days, Iranian officials are releasing statements downplaying the report, calling it inaccurate, not showing any sign of backing down or changing course.

“Let them publish and see what happens,” said Iran’s foreign minister and former nuclear top official, Ali Akbar Salehi, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported Saturday.

Salehi said that the controversy over Iran’s nuclear program is “100 percent political” and that the IAEA is “under pressure from foreign powers”, the Washington Post reports.

According to David Albright, a former IAEA official who has access to intelligence reports, it has now been learned that Iran never abandoned its program in the past as was believed, and Tehran has been quietly continuing its efforts towards gaining nuclear independence, in line with Israeli intelligence.

Sadly, this US administration and the former Bush administration have been at odds with Israel over the accuracy of Jerusalem’s information, but Israel has remained steadfast, insisting the reports are the most accurate and cause for concern.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)