FIRST ON FOX — A new intelligence report alleges Iran is actively pursuing its nuclear weapons program, suggesting it aims to develop missiles capable of long-range delivery.

This assessment from Austrian officials contrasts with the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), whose Director of National Intelligence stated in March that the U.S. intelligence community believes Iran is not currently building a nuclear weapon and that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.

The Austrian Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution stated in its intelligence report that “In order to assert and enforce its regional political power ambitions, the Islamic Republic of Iran is striving for comprehensive rearmament, with nuclear weapons to make the regime immune to attack and to expand and consolidate its dominance in the Middle East and beyond.”

The Austrian report further stated, “The Iranian nuclear weapons development program is well advanced, and Iran possesses a growing arsenal of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads over long distances.”

According to an intelligence document, “Iran has developed sophisticated sanctions-evasion networks, which has benefited Russia.”

These Austrian findings could complicate President Trump’s negotiation efforts to resolve the nuclear crisis with Iran, as the report indicates Iran may not abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

In response to the Austrian intelligence, a White House official stated, “President Trump is committed to Iran never obtaining a nuclear weapon or the capacity to build one.”

The report, which details threats to Austria’s democracy, mentions the danger posed by Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism and its illegal nuclear weapons program 99 times within its 211 pages.

The Austrian intelligence report also noted, “Vienna is home to one of the largest embassies of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Europe, which disguises intelligence officers with diplomatic.”

“Iranian intelligence services are familiar with developing and implementing circumvention strategies for the procurement of military equipment, proliferation-sensitive technologies, and materials for weapons of mass destruction,” the report stated.

In 2021, an Iranian diplomat based in Vienna was convicted for planning a 2018 bombing attack on a meeting of Iranian dissidents outside Paris. Rudy Giuliani attended the event.

When questioned about the differing conclusions of the U.S. ODNI and the Austrian report, David Albright, a physicist and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, said, “The ODNI report is stuck in the past, a remnant of the fallacious unclassified 2007 NIE [National Intelligence Estimate].”

“The Austrian report in general is similar to German and British assessments. Both governments, by the way, made clear to (the) U.S. IC [intelligence community] in 2007 that they thought the U.S. assessment was wrong that the Iranian nuclear weapons program ended in 2003.”

“The German assessment is from BND [Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service] station chief in D.C. at that time. The British info is from a senior British non-proliferation official I was having dinner with the day the 2007 NIE was made public. The German said the U.S. was misinterpreting data they all possessed.”

Albright stated that the Austrian intelligence findings clearly indicate Tehran is actively working on a nuclear weapons program.

In 2023, reports indicated that Iran was seeking to evade U.S. and EU sanctions to acquire technology for its nuclear weapons program, with the aim of testing a nuclear bomb.

European intelligence agencies have documented that Iran continued efforts to illegally secure technology for its atomic, biological and chemical weapons programs both before and after 2015.

The Austrian report also noted that Iran provides weapons to Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as to Syrian militias.

A spokesperson for ODNI declined to comment. The U.S. State Department and U.S. National Security Council did not immediately respond to press queries.