|
Israel 'should attack nuclear sites in Iran if diplomacy fails'
A PRE-EMPTIVE Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear installations would be fraught with risks and difficulties, but it would set back significantly Tehran's development programme, a respected think-tank in Tel Aviv said yesterday. However, the bombing of Iran's facilities — a possibility that appeared to increase with the revelation last month that the United States had agreed to sell Israel "bunker buster" bombs — should be the last resort, said researchers from the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. After news that Israel would take delivery of the precision-guided bombs capable of destroying underground targets, some analysts argued that the diversity of Iran's facilities and poor intelligence would make a raid impossible. Yet despite the problems of such an operation, Ephraim Kam, the Jaffee Centre's deputy head, said that it would put the programme back for a year or more and should not be ruled out if diplomatic pressure failed to halt Iran's research. Israel regards Iran as its biggest strategic worry. Intelligence sources estimate that Tehran will acquire nuclear weapons by 2007 and defence chiefs have hinted at a first strike similar to the one on the Osirak facility in Iraq 23 years ago, which thwarted Saddam Hussein's atomic designs. Israel's alarm has acquired new urgency after Major-General Giora Eiland, its National Security Adviser, said that Iran would reach the "point of no return" by late November, rather than next year, when it would require no further outside aid to bring the programme to fruition. Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-10-13 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=45823 |