President Barack Obama's refusal in a White House briefing earlier this month to announce a "red line" in regard to the Iran nuclear program represented another in a series of rebuffs of pressure from Defence Secretary Robert Gates for a statement that the United States will not accept Iran's existing stocks of low enriched uranium. The Obama rebuff climaxed a months-long internal debate between Obama and Gates over the "breakout capability" issue which surfaced in the news media last April.
