Israel Warns of Iran Nuclear Plans
- By GAVIN RABINOWITZ, Associated Press Writer
Monday, August 1, 2005
(08-01) 16:33 PDT JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) --
Israeli officials expressed alarm Monday over Iran's decision to resume uranium processing, warning that unless the international community steps up pressure on the Islamic state, Iran will develop nuclear weapons.
However, Israeli experts said the world, led by the U.S., should deal with the problem.
Iran says its nuclear enrichment program is for peaceful purposes, but Israel and the United States believe Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons.
"If the Americans, Europeans and Russians will not take Iran to the (U.N.) Security Council and put real pressure on them, they will produce nuclear capabilities," said Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Israel has repeatedly warned that Iran, which already posses the Shahab-3 missile — a weapon capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching Europe, Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East — is a threat to the Jewish state...
Officials questioned Israel's ability to destroy Iran's nuclear installations. Israeli warplanes bombed the unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak near Baghdad in 1981. They said Iran's nuclear installations, unlike the Iraqi reactor, are dispersed throughout the country — many in populated areas, with sophisticated defense systems.
"I believe this is beyond our abilities," said Uzi Even, a former lawmaker and a Tel Aviv University expert on nuclear weapons....
sfgate.com
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...but it's not as if we haven't been seeing if it IS within our capabilities. We do have Bush's nice bunker busters that we could always try.
Why exactly would Iran want to nuke Israel at this time? What exactly would it gain at this time? If Iran can join with the Shite government of Iraq and make a supersized Iran and maybe take over Saudi Arabia's role as the largest oil reserves on earth, why bother with some kind of outta-the-blue nuclear strike on Israel at this time? |
