Israel has a year to destroy Iran's nuclear programme: ex-spy chief
Pastor Dale Morgan
Israel has a year to destroy Iran's nuclear programme: ex-spy chief
*
AFP - Sunday, June 29
LONDON (AFP) - - Israel has one year to destroy Iran's nuclear programme
or it faces the risk of coming under nuclear attack, the former head of
its foreign intelligence agency said in an interview published Sunday.
Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Shabtai Shavit said the "worst-case
scenario" was that Tehran would have a nuclear weapon within "somewhere
around a year".
"The time that is left to be ready is getting shorter all the time," he
was quoted as saying by the weekly.
"As an intelligence officer working with the worst-case scenario, I can
tell you we should be prepared. We should do whatever necessary on the
defensive side, on the offensive side, on the public opinion side for
the West, in case sanctions don't work. What's left is a military action."
The chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards General Mohammad Ali
Jafari warned Israel not to attack it, saying that the Jewish state was
well within range of its missiles, according to a newspaper report Saturday.
Iran has defied UN sanctions and international demands by pressing ahead
with its uranium enrichment programme, which both Washington and Israel
fear will be used to build a nuclear weapon.
Tehran denies wanting the bomb, and says its nuclear ambitions extend
only to generating electricity for a growing population.
Shavit also waded into the American presidential race between Republican
John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, saying that the latter was less
likely to approve an Israeli military strike against Iran.
"If McCain gets elected, he could really easily make a decision to go
for it," Shavit was quoted as saying.
"If it's Obama: no. My prediction is that he won't go for it, at least
not in his first term in the White House."
He warned, however, that American approval was not a necessary
pre-requisite for Israel carrying out an air strike on Iranian nuclear
facilities.
"When it comes to decisions that have to do with our national security
and our own survival, at best we may update the Americans that we are
intending or planning or going to do something," he said.
"It's not a precondition, [getting] an American agreement."