Iran 'duped' CIA over nuclear programme

Washington/New York: British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed its nuclear weapons programme, as a US intelligence report claimed last week, and believe the CIA has been hookwinked by Tehran, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The timing of the CIA report has also provoked fury in the British Government, where officials believe it has undermined efforts to impose tough new sanctions on Iran and made an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities more likely.

The security services in London want concrete evidence to allay concerns that Iran has fed disinformation to the CIA.

Suspect sources

The report used new evidence - including human sources, wireless intercepts and evidence from an Iranian defector - to conclude that Tehran suspended the bomb-making side of its nuclear programme in 2003.

But British intelligence is concerned that US spy chiefs were so determined to avoid giving President George Bush a reason to go to war that they got it wrong this time.

A senior British official delivered a withering assessment of US intelligence gathering abilities in the Middle East and revealed that British spies share the concerns of Israeli defence chiefs that Iran is still pursuing nuclear weapons.

The source told The Sunday Telegraph that British analysts believe that Iranian nuclear staff, knowing their phones were tapped, deliberately gave misleading information. A US intelligence source also revealed that some American spies share the concerns of the British and the Israelis.