WASHINGTON: The opposition Democrats in the United States have called for a rethink of policy towards Iran, now that it appears the Iranian Government is not trying to develop a nuclear weapon.

The latest National Intelligence Estimate says Iran stopped trying to develop a nuclear weapon in 2003.

In a sign of the pivotal importance this report might turn out to have, the Democrats have seized on it suggesting that it changes everything, or ought to.

Their leader in the Senate, Harry Reed, has called for a surge of diplomacy with Iran, an emulation of Ronald Reagan’s engagement of the Soviet Union.

Such a view is easier to argue in the US after this report, wth its central finding that Iran had a nuclear weapons program but stopped it in 2003 and has probably not reinstated it