President Obama’s top military and intelligence advisers disagree on the question of whether Iran is intentionally pursuing nuclear weapons, leaving lawmakers confused about what to believe.

Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a hold-over from the Bush administration, said in no uncertain terms Wednesday that he believes Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons and that its government has made that decision.

“I believe that Iran is on a path to develop nuclear weapons,” Mullen told members of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, a Washington based nonprofit organization focused on professional development, “We can debate the timeline, but it’s very clear to me that that’s their path and that’s what their leadership is about.”

Mullen’s comments on Iran come only one day after Adm. Dennis C. Blair , President Obama’s new director of national intelligence, gave the opposite analysis, saying he believed Iran had not made the decision to pursue a nuclear weapons capability.

“We assess that Iran has not yet made that decision,” Blair told the Senate Armed Services Committee March 10, speaking on behalf of the entire intelligence community.

Blair was referring to Iran’s potential decision to take their vast stockpiles of low-enriched uranium, which is not suitable for nuclear weapons, and refine them into highly-enriched uranium, the kind needed for nuclear bombs.

Based on differing intelligence estimates, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon sometime between 2010 and 2015, Blair said, although he maintained that the Iranian government is not trying to do so.

“Whether they develop a nuclear weapon which could then be put in [a] warhead I believe is a separate decision which Iran has not made yet,” Blair testified.

The conclusions in the last National Intelligence Estimate, which stated Iran had halted its nuclear weapons design and development programs by 2007, are “still valid,” he added.

The Muddled Middle

Top military- and intelligence-minded lawmakers noted the discrepancy and urged the two senior administration officials to get on the same page.

“Absolutely it’s a problem,” remarked Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin , D-Mich., saying that without better information, he would have to side with the intelligence community’s assessment.

Levin called on the two to meet and share the evidence each used to reach their separate conclusions.