Report: Israel won’t allow a nuclear Iran
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Israel will not allow Iran to attain nuclear capability and if time begins
to run out, Jerusalem will not hesitate to take whatever means necessary to
prevent Iran from achieving its nuclear goals, the government has recently
decided in a special discussion.
So far, Israel has not received American authorization to use US-controlled
Iraqi airspace, nor has the defense establishment been successful in
securing the purchase of advanced US-made warplanes which could facilitate
an Israeli strike.
The Americans have offered Israel permission to use a global early warning
radar system, implying that the US is pushing Israel to settle for defensive
measures only.
Ephraim Sneh a veteran Labor MK who has recently left the party, has
reportedly sent a document to both US presidential candidates, John McCain
and Barack Obama. The eight-point document states that “there is no
government in Jerusalem that would ever reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran.
When it is clear Iran is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons, an
Israeli military strike to prevent this will be seriously considered.”
The window of opportunity Sneh suggests is a year and a half to two years,
until 2010.
Sneh also visited Switzerland and Austria last week in an attempt to lobby
them against the Iranian threat. Both countries have announced massive
long-term investments in Iranian gas and oil fields for the next decade.
“Talk of the Jewish Holocaust and Israel’s security doesn’t impress these
guys,” Sneh said wryly.
Hearing his hosts speak of their future investments, Sneh replied quietly
“it’s a shame, because Ido will light all this up.” He was referring to Maj.
Gen. Ido Nehushtan, the recently appointed IAF commander and the man most
likely to be the one to orchestrate Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear
facilities, should this become a necessity.
“Investing in Iran in 2008,” Sneh told his Austrian hosts, “is like
investing in the Krupp steelworks in 1938, it’s a high risk investment.” The
Austrians, according to Sneh, turned pale.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Reza Sheikh Attar, who visited the Natanz plant
last week, said that Iran was preparing to install even more centrifuges,
though he did not offer a timeframe.
“Right now, nearly 4,000 centrifuges are operating at Natanz,” Attar told
the state news agency IRNA. “Currently, 3,000 other centrifuges are being
installed.”
Meanwhile, the pan-Arabic Al Kuds al Arabi reported Friday that Iran had
equipped Hizbullah with longer range missiles than those it possessed before
the Second Lebanon War and had also improved the guerrilla group’s targeting
capabilities.
According to the report, which The Jerusalem Post could not verify
independently, Hizbullah was planning a massive rocket onslaught on targets
reaching deep into Israel’s civilian underbelly in case Israel launches an
attack on Iran.
AP contributed to this report