Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran*

Uzi Mahnaimi, New York and Sarah Baxter, Washington

ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment
facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.

Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian
facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several
Israeli military sources.

The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the
United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The
Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of
the Hiroshima bomb.

Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels”
into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a
plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of
radioactive fallout.

“As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike
and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished,” said one of the
sources.

The plans, disclosed to The Sunday Times last week, have been prompted
in part by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad’s assessment that
Iran is on the verge of producing enough enriched uranium to make
nuclear weapons within two years.

Israeli military commanders believe conventional strikes may no longer
be enough to annihilate increasingly well-defended enrichment
facilities. Several have been built beneath at least 70ft of concrete
and rock. However, the nuclear-tipped bunker-busters would be used only
if a conventional attack was ruled out and if the United States declined
to intervene, senior sources said.

Israeli and American officials have met several times to consider
military action. Military analysts said the disclosure of the plans
could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole
America into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli
attack.

Some analysts warned that Iranian retaliation for such a strike could
range from disruption of oil supplies to the West to terrorist attacks
against Jewish targets around the world.

Israel has identified three prime targets south of Tehran which are
believed to be involved in Iran’s nuclear programme:

* Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges are being installed for uranium
enrichment

* A uranium conversion facility near Isfahan where, according to a
statement by an Iranian vice-president last week, 250 tons of gas for
the enrichment process have been stored in tunnels

* A heavy water reactor at Arak, which may in future produce enough
plutonium for a bomb

Israeli officials believe that destroying all three sites would delay
Iran’s nuclear programme indefinitely and prevent them from having to
live in fear of a “second Holocaust”.

The Israeli government has warned repeatedly that it will never allow
nuclear weapons to be made in Iran, whose president, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, has declared that “Israel must be wiped off the map”.

Robert Gates, the new US defence secretary, has described military
action against Iran as a “last resort”, leading Israeli officials to
conclude that it will be left to them to strike.

Israeli pilots have flown to Gibraltar in recent weeks to train for the
2,000-mile round trip to the Iranian targets. Three possible routes have
been mapped out, including one over Turkey.

Air force squadrons based at Hatzerim in the Negev desert and Tel Nof,
south of Tel Aviv, have trained to use Israel’s tactical nuclear weapons
on the mission. The preparations have been overseen by Major General
Eliezer Shkedi, commander of the Israeli air force.

Sources close to the Pentagon said the United States was highly unlikely
to give approval for tactical nuclear weapons to be used. One source
said Israel would have to seek approval “after the event”, as it did
when it crippled Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak with airstrikes in 1981.

Scientists have calculated that although contamination from the
bunker-busters could be limited, tons of radioactive uranium compounds
would be released.

The Israelis believe that Iran’s retaliation would be constrained by
fear of a second strike if it were to launch its Shehab-3 ballistic
missiles at Israel.

However, American experts warned of repercussions, including widespread
protests that could destabilise parts of the Islamic world friendly to
the West.

Colonel Sam Gardiner, a Pentagon adviser, said Iran could try to close
the Strait of Hormuz, the route for 20% of the world’s oil.

Some sources in Washington said they doubted if Israel would have the
nerve to attack Iran. However, Dr Ephraim Sneh, the deputy Israeli
defence minister, said last month: “The time is approaching when Israel
and the international community will have to decide whether to take
military action against Iran.”