Israel: Iran has mastered bomb technology

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JERUSALEM, March 9 (UPI) -- An Israeli intelligence official says Iran has completed its mastery of the technology needed to make a nuclear bomb.

Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told the Israeli cabinet Sunday Tehran has "crossed the technological threshold," and now the only thing keeping it from attaining a nuclear military capability is "incorporating the goal of producing an atomic bomb into its strategy," The Jerusalem Post reported.

"Iran is continuing to amass hundreds of kilograms of low-enriched uranium, and it hopes to exploit the dialogue with the West and Washington to advance toward the production of an atomic bomb," the Post reported Yadlin saying.

Yadlin said Iran will use expected negotiations with the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to buy time to procure a sufficient amount highly enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon.

The Post reported Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week Tehran has enough fissile material to build a bomb now.