The White House has quietly fixed a one-letter mistake on an official statement that led to some concern about the United States’ official policy towards Iran.

The mistake came in a Monday night statement credited to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and asserted that Iran “has a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program.”

The present-tense nature of that statement contradicts determinations by the American intelligence community, which has said Tehran froze its nuclear enrichment program after the 2015 nuclear agreement was signed between the US and several other western nations.

Less than three hours later, the initial statement was amended to reflect the intelligence community’s point of view, and declared that Iran “had” such a program.

The White House did not issue a formal correction, but provided CNN with an explanation for the error.

“The original White House statement included a clerical error, which we quickly detected and fixed,” a National Security Council spokesperson told the news network. “To be clear, the United States has long known that Iran had a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program.”

Iran protests – in pictures Show all 11 1 /11 Iran protests – in pictures Iran protests – in pictures University students at an anti-government protest inside Tehran University, 30 December 2017 AP Iran protests – in pictures A university student at a protest inside Tehran University while a smoke grenade is thrown by anti-riot Iranian police, 30 December 2017 AP Iran protests – in pictures University students at a protest inside Tehran University, 30 December 2017 AP Iran protests – in pictures University students run away from the police during an anti-government protest inside Tehran University, 30 December 2017 AP Iran protests – in pictures An image grab taken from a handout video released by Iran's Mehr News agency reportedly shows a group of men pulling at a fence in a street in Tehran, 30 December 2017 AFP/Getty Iran protests – in pictures Demonstrators gather to protest in Tehran, 30 December 2017 AP Iran protests – in pictures Iranians chant slogans as they march in support of the government near the Imam Khomeini grand mosque in Tehran, 30 December 2017 AFP/Getty Iran protests – in pictures Iranians chant slogans as they march in support of the government near the Imam Khomeini grand mosque in Tehran, December 30 2017 Iran protests – in pictures Iranian clerics take part during a state-organized rally against anti-government protests in the country, in the holy city of Qom, south west Iran, 3 January 2018 EPA Iran protests – in pictures In this photo provided by the Iranian Students' News Agency, a clergyman takes a picture of a pro-government demonstration in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, Iran, 3 January 2018 ISNA via AP Iran protests – in pictures Pro-government demonstrators gather at the Massoumeh shrine in Iran's holy city of Qom, some 130 kilometres south of Tehran, 3 January 2018 AFP/Getty

The mistake comes as President Donald Trump has publicly mulled over the possibility of declaring that Iran has violated the nuclear agreement, and as European leaders have urged him against scrapping the accord. Mr Trump has given himself until May 12 to decide the fate of the nuclear deal.

While those European leaders have urged Mr Trump to stay in the deal, he has also received pressure from other allies to get rid of the deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for example, delivered a prime-time speech Monday to declare that his government had acquired a trove of Iranian documents showing that the Iranians have lied about its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Analysts have questioned how revealing the documents Mr Netanyahu claimed to have really are, though. The hour-long presentation, which was partly in English, did not disclose much new information about Iran’s nuclear enrichment processes, those analysts said.

Mr Trump praised Mr Netanyahu’s disclosures, however, indicating that the Israeli leader had his ear to some degree.