Iran’s president crowed on Wednesday that a recent U.S. intelligence report on his nation’s nuclear program was “a victory” for Iran over world powers.

Earlier this week, the U.S. National Intelligence Council declassified a report claiming that Iran halted its secret nuclear weapons program four years ago. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad triumphed this report as a great victory for Iran and emphasized that Iran will not retreat “one step” in its uranium enrichment program. Spurred on by this “victory,” Ahmadinejad announced on Wednesday that Iran needs to build 50,000 centrifuges in order to meet its enriched uranium needs.

This whole situation has been a green light for Iranian uranium enrichment. If the U.S. no longer believes Iran is developing a nuclear weapon, there is no longer a threat of a U.S. invasion of Iran. Without this threat looming over them, the Iranians feel free to pursue their uranium-enrichment program like never before. International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei said the report offers Iran a “window of opportunity” to prove that its nuclear program is peaceful.

The fact of the matter is, it doesn’t take long to develop a nuclear weapon after you have the enriched uranium. The latest report of the International Atomic Energy Agency indicated that Iran had already reached a mid-level goal of 3,000 centrifuges. Now Ahmadinejad wants 50,000.

Continue to watch the Iranian nuclear program. The United States has been caught off guard before by the covertness of other nations’ nuclear programs. It failed to predict India’s first nuclear test, it was shocked by North Korea’s entrance into the nuclear club, and it underestimated Russia’s emergence as a nuclear power by at least three years. Could the testing of Iran’s first nuclear warhead be America’s next big surprise?

For more information on Iran’s nuclear aspirations, read “Intelligence Estimate Puts Enormous Faith in Iran.”