No, Iran does not posses nuclear weapons

In the course of a long career as a polemical journalist I have got thoroughly used to being insulted, libelled and attacked in a multitude of different ways. It comes with the territory, and is probably good for the soul. As a general rule the best policy is to allow these assaults to pass by outside the off-stump without playing a stroke. Disputes between journalists tend to be fruitless, self-important and (worst of all) tedious.

However, two weeks ago I published a book, co-authored with David Morrison, A Dangerous Delusion: Why the West is Wrong about Nuclear Iran. Since then my co-author and I have been subject to a series of misrepresentations and innuendo on a scale and (in some cases) virulence that I have never encountered before. In the circumstances there is no choice but to break the rule of a lifetime.

The first attack came from Oliver Kamm, a leader-writer on the Times.