Israel: Iran could have nukes by '09
Pastor Dale Morgan
Israel: Iran could have nukes by '09*
By YAAKOV KATZ AND HERB KEINON
The Jerusalem Post
With Iran racing forward with its nuclear program, Israel now believes
the Islamic Republic will master centrifuge technology and be able to
begin enriching uranium on a military scale this year, The Jerusalem
Post has learned.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, visits the Natanz Uranium
Enrichment Facility some 322 kilometers south of the capital Teheran, Iran.
The new assessment moves up Israel's forecasts on Teheran's nuclear
program by almost a full year - from 2009 to the end of 2008. According
to the new timeline, Iran could have a nuclear weapon by the middle of
next year.
Iran, a senior defense official said on Tuesday, had encountered
numerous technical obstacles on its way to enriching uranium but was now
on track to master the technology needed to enrich uranium within six
months.
Israel is also concerned that Teheran is developing a cruise missile
that can evade interception by the Arrow, the IDF's anti-ballistic
missile defense system. Iran is suspected of having smuggled Ukrainian
X-55 cruise missiles and using them as models for an independent,
domestic project. A cruise missile, which flies at low altitudes to
dodge radar detection and interception, could be used to carry a nuclear
warhead.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that Israel had the ability to
create the tools needed to ensure its continued existence. Hinting at
Iran, Olmert said that nothing in the world could undermine or bring an
end to Israel's existence.
In a speech to a Keren Hayesod group, Olmert said, "I am asking that you
take this with you and tell it to your communities everywhere - the
people of Israel are strong, the State of Israel is strong, there is no
enemy that can destroy us."
"We will not place ourselves in a position where anyone will, in an
effective manner, threaten us with destruction, because if there was one
thing that has changed since the establishment of the State of Israel 60
years ago until today, it is not that here the Jews are safe in every
situation, in every condition and that there will not be any dangers,"
Olmert said. "There are also dangers here, like in many other places.
"But here, my friends, the Jewish people can fight, and when it needs
to, it fights, and when it fights, it wins."
Last week, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said during a visit to
the US that Teheran would likely achieve control of the technology to
enrich uranium for an atomic bomb within a year.
In the past, the consensus in the intelligence community was that Iran
had encountered technical difficulties with fuel enrichment and that its
attainment of nuclear capability was much further off, Mofaz said, but a
recent IDF Military Intelligence assessment showed that the Islamic
Republic could go nuclear before the end of the decade.
Also Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned that
more nations would follow the examples of Iran and North Korea and work
to develop nuclear weapons. He said that the possibility that Syria was
building a weapons-capable nuclear reactor before the IAF destroyed it
on September 6 showed that NATO must find an answer to ballistic missile
threats.
"The nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea threaten to set in motion
a domino effect that will be difficult to contain," de Hoop Scheffer
said in a speech at a missile defense conference at the Czech Foreign
Ministry.
"If there is a serious suspicion that in Syria there was a facility in
the making, it only increases the arguments... for finding a collective
answer to a ballistic missile defense threat," the NATO chief said.
CIA Director Michael Hayden said last month that the alleged Syrian
nuclear reactor would have produced enough plutonium for one or two
bombs within a year of becoming operational.
"The number of states that possess ballistic missiles is already
growing, slowly and surely," de Hoop Scheffer said. "The proliferation
of ballistic missiles is a reality that concerns us all."
AP contributed to this report.