Unnamed “Western diplomats” have given a briefing to the Reuters news service, to warn that Iran is still shopping for parts for atomic weapons: Diplomats: Iran Atomic Shopping Deepens Bomb Fears.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Western diplomats say recent intelligence reports show Iran has been attempting to buy items that could be used to build nuclear weapons — a charge Tehran dismisses as baseless.

The diplomats cited European customs information and intelligence gathered in the Middle East showing Tehran had tried to buy, among other things, high-speed switches that could potentially be used in a nuclear weapon and high-speed cameras the Iranians might use to test a nuclear explosion.

“They appear to be working on the planning for a high-speed nuclear implosion device,” the diplomat said, adding that Iran had also been experimenting with “high explosive that would be appropriate for the core of a nuclear weapon.”

A senior U.S. official told Reuters in Washington that these procurement efforts were part of an effort that has been going on for a long time. He declined to confirm the specific items mentioned, but said they were not “all new” to Washington.

“This is an ongoing procurement process. I fully believe that they’re still at it, but I can’t say that there is some new list that they’re out buying right now,” the official said.

The diplomats said their motivation for briefing Reuters was concern that France, Britain and Germany were enabling Iran to play for time while the trio struggle to find a way of enticing Tehran into fully suspending its uranium enrichment program.

But this report won’t worry the mullahs. They’re confident that the West’s paralysis is complete—so confident that they issue sneering, transparently false denials of their nuclear intentions, at the same time as they openly threaten the West with destruction.

And “Western diplomats” babble about “smoking guns.”

Tehran insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity. President Mohammad Khatami said Wednesday that the diplomats’ intelligence was false.

“It is not true at all,” he told reporters in Tehran. “If they’re aiming to force Iran to abandon its right to use peaceful nuclear technology, then I should say that we will never abandon our right.”

The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has been probing Iran’s nuclear program for nearly two years, declined comment. While the IAEA has reported numerous instances where Tehran concealed potentially arms-related activities, it has found no clear proof of a weapons program.

“We all think the American assessment is probably right because there is no other good explanation for the Iranian activities,” a senior international diplomat involved in the investigation of Iran told the New York Times this week.

“But we still don’t have the smoking gun,” he said, adding that after Iraq “we need smoking guns more than ever.”

Except that, in this case, the proper term might be “smoking city.”