WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – A US national security spokesman blamed a “clerical error” for a mistake in a White House statement that falsely claimed Iran currently has a nuclear weapons program, media reported on Tuesday.
“The original White House statement included a clerical error, which we quickly detected and fixed,” a national security council spokesman told CNN. “To be clear, the United States has long known that Iran had a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program.”
The White House issued a statement on Monday saying that “Iran has a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program.”
Hours later, the White House put a corrected statement online that said, “Iran had a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program.”
The initial White House statement contradicted the assessment of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has concluded that Iran had abandoned clandestine efforts to develop a nuclear explosive device by 2009.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
