Former Iranian president Rafsanjani reappointed Expediency Council Chairman; Reports: Israeli officials now agree with the U.S. assessment that Tehran has not yet decided on the actual construction of a nuclear bomb
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    • According to reports, in a decree issued, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei reappointed Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as the chairman of the Expediency Council and the other members of the council for a new five-year term. In the decree, the Leader described the track record of the Expediency Council during its previous term as adequate and said that he is hopeful that the measures taken by the previous council would come to fruition and produce positive results for the country. 1

    In other developments, according to reports, Israeli officials now agree with the U.S. assessment that Tehran has not yet decided on the actual construction of a nuclear bomb, according to senior Israeli government and defense figures. Israel’s leaders have been charging in no uncertain terms for years that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Though officials say they accept the more nuanced American view, they warn that it is just a matter of semantics, because an Iran on the verge of being able to build a bomb would still be a danger. Several senior Israeli officials who spoke in recent days to the Associated Press said Israel has come around to the U.S. view that no final decision to build a bomb has been made by Iran. The officials, who are privy to intelligence and to the discussion about the Iranian program, said this is the prevailing view in the intelligence community, but there are also questions about whether Tehran might be hiding specific bomb making operations. The concern, they said, is about allowing the Iranian program to reach the point where there is enough enriched weapons grade material that a bomb could quickly be assembled, within a year. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on March 18, 2012 “Iran, whose leader foments terrorism and violence around the globe and calls for our destruction ... this regime, must never be allowed to have nuclear weapons.” 2

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