New American intelligence indicates that a covert team of Iranian scientists is exploring ways to quickly develop a nuclear weapon if the country's leadership decides to pursue one, The New York Times reports. The report says the information points to Iran seeking a shortcut to a bomb that would enable them to convert their uranium stocks into a weapon within months rather than years, if necessary, though a decision to race toward a bomb has not been made. The paper says the intel was gathered in the final months of the Biden administration and shared with Donald Trump's team. It notes that with Iran's regional power weakened by the blows to its proxy forces in the region and its failure to significantly hit Israel with its missile barrages, Tehran is anxious to find new ways to deter a strike by Israel or the US.