Israel Matzav

Military Intelligence Chief: Iran can already make a nuclear bomb

Israel's Military Intelligence Chief, Amos Yadlin, told the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv on Tuesday that Iran is already capable of making a nuclear bomb.

Speaking at a conference on security challenges in the 21st century at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Yadlin said that Iran is extremely close to mastering the necessary nuclear technology and will wait on the threshold until it feels that the international community is too weak to stop them to move forward towards the bomb.

Iran, he said, already has enriched 1.7 tons of low enriched uranium at its facility in Natanz, which is enough for a nuclear weapon.

"They are also improving long-range missiles with solid fuel propellant, are also developing nuclear detonators and taking other steps that do not fit Iranian claim that its program is for civilian purposes," he said.

Yadlin said that it appeared that the diplomatic efforts to stop Iran had failed and that the time had come for the international community to impose tough sanctions on the regime. He rejected the claim that sanctions would unite the Iranian people behind the regime and said that the post-election demonstrations in June were proof that there was a deep rift between the people and the regime.

Yadlin also said that any weapons that are in the hands of Iran or Syria could eventually be delivered to Hezbullah in Lebanon.

Haaretz adds:

Speaking at The Institute for National Security Studies, Yadlin said that Iran had embarked on a "measured and sophisticated strategy for a solid nuclear infrastructure, by spreading out in facilities both overt and covert, while simultaneously developing a military capability that would allow a breakthrough when it so decides."

According to Yadlin, there are three clocks now ticking with regard to Iran's contentious nuclear program ? those of technology, diplomacy, and of the stability of the Islamic regime. Technologically, said Yadlin, time was almost up.

Meanwhile, the Times of London discloses the name of the man who heads Iran's nuclear program.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is the man everyone would like to reach to learn the secrets of Iran’s nuclear programme. No one outside Iran has succeeded so far. The Times has seen a memo signed by Mr Fakhrizadeh, identifying him for the first time as the chairman of the Field for the Expansion of Deployment of Advance Technology (Fedat).

Intelligence sources say that this is the most recent cover name for the organisation running Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.

The United Nations’ atomic watchdog has long believed him to be the head of Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons programme, but Tehran, which jealously guards his secrets, has repeatedly rejected attempts to interview him.

Mr Fakhrizadeh, a physics professor and a former officer in the elite Revolutionary Guard, is no longer able to leave Iran because the UN Security Council imposed travel sanctions and an assets freeze on him. However, he is regarded as one of the regime’s most loyal servants.

In the old days, the Mossad would have found him and either killed him or captured him. Can that still happen? That remains to be seen.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:33 PM