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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| IRAN TO REACH NUCLEAR SELF-SUFFICIENCY EARLY NEXT YEAR |
| 2004-09-14 |
| (Unless military action is swiftly under taken preventing Tehran's terrorist supporting rouge régime from gaining nuclear weapons which in turn they would use at the drop of a hat.) September 13th, 2004 By: ICEJ News US urges allies to step up pressure on Tehran; hints at possible use of force If Iran's atomic program is not checked, Tehran will have the capability to develop nuclear weapons early next year, Israel's chief of military intelligence warned Sunday. "This does not mean that it will have a bomb in 2005," MI chief Aharon Ze'evi told the Israel-Jordan Chamber of Commerce on Sunday. "It means that it will have all the means at its disposal to build a bomb," without any further outside help. On the eve of a crucial International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in Vienna on Monday, America stepped up pressure on Tehran to agree to European-led diplomatic initiative to dismantle its weapons program or face stiff UN sanctions. While visiting Israel on Sunday on his way to the Vienna talks US Undersecretary of State John Bolton also hinted that Washington is ready to use force against the Islamic Republic if it successfully develops a nuclear bomb. At stake in Vienna on Monday is a European draft resolution spearheaded by the EU "big three," Britain, France and Germany that gives Tehran until November to suspend its ongoing attempts to enrich weapons-grade uranium but one lacking an "automatic trigger" that would refer Iran immediately to the UN Security Council as Washington had wished. Iran's attempt to achieve nuclear weapons capabilities is not just a challenge to Israel but to the Western world, and "we have to worry about it," IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon said in a speech on counter-terrorism Sunday. But it is not only Iran's attempts to attain non-conventional weapon capabilities that threaten the region, Ya'alon argued, but its active sponsorship of terrorism. "I can illustrate a connection between suicide bomb attacks in Tel Aviv, Beersheba, or the 14-year-old boy who was arrested at the Hawara checkpoint near Nablus wearing an explosives belt," Ya'alon said, according to The Jerusalem Post. "I can trace it all back to Teheran, Iranian money, Iranian weapons smuggling." |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |