A lengthy correction from The Guardian addresses several errors about Iran’s nuclear program and missiles:
An article went farther than the prime minister when its opening paragraph quoted David Cameron as warning – at a parliamentary committee session – that Iran is seeking to build an “inter-continental nuclear weapon”. The prime minister was indeed talking of suspected Iranian aspirations for a “nuclear-armed future”, but his words about a missile were: “There are signs that the Iranians want to have some sort of intercontinental missile capability.” An ICBM with a nuclear warhead was not mentioned. The piece also reported that Britain’s National Security Council has been looking at possible repercussions if Israel were to launch “a pre-emptive strike against an Iranian nuclear weapons site”. We should have said nuclear site, as Iran is not known to have a site producing nuclear weapons. Finally, our piece said that Iran “is thought to be working with the Koreans to turn an existing missile into a missile that can accommodate a nuclear warhead”. There is evidence that the Iranians and North Koreans cooperated in the past on missile technology; the International Atomic Energy Agency has also asked Iran to explain evidence that it once worked on a missile payload design that could be used to deliver a nuclear warhead. But there is no proof of North Korean involvement in that design, nor is there conclusive proof that Iran has itself pursued the development of such a weapon (Iran seeking ‘intercontinental’ nuclear weapon, says PM, 7 March, page 1).
