Iran Slows Down Pursuit of Nuclear Materials

Appears to be reducing stockpile for use as nuclear energy

A slowdown in Iran's accumulation of its most sensitive nuclear material may have helped put off the threat of a new Middle East war for now, but Tehran's expanding uranium-enrichment capacity suggests any relief could be short-lived.

By dedicating a big part of its higher-enriched uranium to make civilian reactor fuel, Iran is removing it from a stockpile that could be used to make nuclear weapons if refined further and which would otherwise have grown faster.

This may explain why Israel - assumed to be the region's only nuclear-armed state - recently signaled that an attack was not imminent, after months of speculation that it might be.