Iran takes advantage of Obama to cross nuclear threshold
IDF Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin told Israel's cabinet on Sunday that Iran has taken advantage of US President Barack Obama's efforts to get it to commit to 'dialogue' in order to cross the nuclear threshold. Iran now has all the technology it needs to make a nuclear bomb. “Iran has crossed the technological threshold,” Yadlin said, “such that its reaching military nuclear capabilities is a matter of adapting its strategy to the target of manufacturing a nuclear bomb.” The bottom line, according to Yadlin, is that it is entirely up to Iran’s decision makers, independent of outside considerations and factors, to decide when to proceed with producing the bomb.Anyone want to start taking bets on when Israel acts?
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Yadlin thus confirmed earlier reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and U.S. Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Commander Admiral Mike Mullen. Mullen said two weeks ago that Tehran now has enough fissile material to build a bomb. The IAEA announced last week that its earlier reports were mistaken, and now acknowledges that it has evidence that Iran has enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.
Practically while Yadlin was making his report, Iran announced that it had successfully tested a new long-range air-to-surface missile.
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“Iran continues to amass hundreds of kilograms of low-grade enriched uranium,” Yadlin said, “and is hoping to take advantage of the dialogue with Washington to buy time to advance towards the ability to build a bomb.” Iran will not stop this activity while the dialogue continues, Yadlin implied, because though “Iran and its allies hope that the spirit of change in the United States is genuine, they think that it is a step before the formulation of a more effective coalition against them.”
Not only Israel has cause for concern, Yadlin said: “The moderate Arab nations fear that the [Obama] administration’s dialogue with Iran will come at their expense, and that it will be exploited by Iran and Syria, which will continue engaging in arming and terrorism while appearing to dialogue.”
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:21 PM
7 Comments:
Hi there...I am of 2 opinions on this one:
1. It could be just before the prosecutor decides to charge Olmert that Olmert will decide to go ahead (no one in their right mind will interfere with the prime minister during such a crucial time), OR
2. About 2 weeks after Bibi is sworn in. He has made it clear that this is his top priority.
So, in my estimate, I think that we are looking at less than 30 days.
I also believe that Israel will not hit Iran's nuclear facilities but rather will destroy Iran's infrastrcuture (oil fields, ports, power plants, bridges etc...) to bring Iran's economy to its knees and push the people of Iran to remove Ahmadinejad from power. Of course, with no money and no infrastrcuture, Iran would not be able to continue its nuclear program.
I don't see what President Obama has to do with this.
Once Iran mastered Uranium enrichment, mastered missile technology and received blueprints for a bomb, it had crossed the threshold. It's purely symbolic that they have enriched enough Uranium that has to be further enriched.
They still have to get those tons of low enriched U down to a couple of kilograms of weapons-grade U.
Unfortunately, bombing won't help anymore. They can re-build whatever is bombed and re-enrich more Uranium. They needed to be bombed a few years ago, before they were able to get their centrifuges to work properly.
10 days after easter
Linking Iran's nuclear progress to Obama, now less than two months in office, would be comical were it not so pathetic.
The notion that Israeli bombing of civilian infrastructure in Iran would turn the Iranian populace against the existing leadership is preposterous, and contrary to virtually all human experience. One might want to consider the effect of Israel's recent campaign in Gaza on Hamas' popularity (at least in the short term).
One among many problems with taking military action on Iran is Iran's ability to close down passages into the Persian Gulf, and with it a huge proportion of the world's supply of oil (including most Iraqi, Kuwaiti, Saudi, and Gulf States production, as well as Iran's own). If you think the world economy is already in trouble (despite somewhat reduced energy consumption and lower oil prices), just wait for this, and the world's response to it.
There are no very good responses to Iran's nuclear ambitions; a failure of will to impose stringent economic sanctions (and to affect Russian policy) is a sad reflection...
North95 and Alan Jay Weisbard,
Are you suggesting we just give up and let Iran nuke us?
"Are you suggesting we just give up and let Iran nuke us?"
Now that we've let Iran develop all the necessary technology, we're going to have to rely on our own nuclear deterrent.
I think Israel has the bigger problem. Being a smaller county, they can be destroyed by a relatively few nukes. They'll have to make it clear that they will use a disproportionate number of nukes to destroy all of Iran in response. We should do the same.
In addition, we should be able to deploy ABM's against Iran before they have their bombs ready.
Will Iran commit national suicide in order to try to kill many Americans or Israelis, who knows?
BTW, I should have made it clear that I am an American.
I'll be visiting Israel again later this year.
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