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IDF: Iran can produce nuclear bomb by 2005
GIL HOFFMAN AND TOVAH LAZAROFF Aug. 5, 2003
Iran will have the materials needed to make a nuclear bomb by 2004 and will have an operative nuclear weapons program by 2005, a high-ranking military officer told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the committee, "It is clearer than ever that the Iranians are making every effort to acquire weapons of mass destruction."
They disclosed their fears about Iran's nuclear capability on the same day that The Los Angles Times published the report on its three-month investigation into the matter, stating that, "Iran appears to be in the late stages of developing the capacity to build a nuclear bomb."
The Times said its investigation uncovered "strong evidence that Iran's commercial program masks a plan to become the world's next nuclear power."
According to the Times, Iran "has been engaged in a pattern of clandestine activity that has concealed weapons work from international inspectors. Technology and scientists from Russia, China, North Korea, and Pakistan have propelled Iran's nuclear program much closer to producing a bomb than Iraq ever was."
The report was less certain of a creation date for a nuclear bomb than Israeli military officials. The paper stated, "No one is certain when Iran might produce its first atomic weapon. Some experts said two or three years; others believe the government has probably not given a final go-ahead. But it is clear that Iran is moving purposefully and rapidly toward acquiring the capability."
According to the Times, "A nuclear-armed Iran would present the United States with a difficult political and military equation. Iran would be the first avowed enemy of Israel to possess a nuclear bomb and the first nuclear-armed country labeled by the administration as a state sponsor of international terrorism."
The Times also stated that, "Iranian nuclear weapons could shift the balance of power in the region, where Washington is trying to establish pro-American governments in Afghanistan and Iraq. Both of those nations border Iran, and are places where Teheran wants to exert influence that could conflict with US intentions, particularly Iraq.
According to the Times, "Foreign intelligence officers said that the Central Intelligence Agency, which has long contended that Iran is building a bomb, has briefed them on a contingency plan for US air and missile attacks against Iranian nuclear installations. 'It would be foolish not to present the commander in chief with all of the options, including that one,' said one of the officials."
According to the Times, "A CIA spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny that such a plan has been drafted. 'We wouldn't talk about anything like that,' she said."
jpost.com |
