Washington, July 25 -- United States intelligence agencies assess that Iran's new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is more open to building nuclear arms than his predecessor and father, according to a report by The New York Times.

The intelligence evaluation, compiled prior to the ongoing war from sources including wiretapped communications, indicates that Mojtaba displays fewer reservations regarding nuclear weaponisation than Ali Khamenei, who was generally regarded as more reserved on the issue.

The elder Khamenei was killed in joint US-Israeli airstrikes at the start of the war on February 28, with US officials clarifying that the assessment stems from an interpretation of earlier material rather than new intelligence gathered afte...