Israel Matzav

MI6: We stopped Iran in 2008 but by 2014 they will have nuclear weapons

I'm sorry, but I don't have the time to find new pictures and the old ones are all on my hard drive which is (hopefully) being repaired. So for the next couple of days you may have to do without pictures.

The Chief of Britain's MI6 said this week that his agency stopped Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons in 2008, but it is highly likely that Iran will develop such weapons by 2014 unless they are stopped.

Sir John made the remarks at a meeting of around 100 senior civil servants in London last week in only his second public speech since he was appointed to the post in 2009.

Speaking at the Civil Service Live event in Olympia he said that Iran was now “two years away” from becoming a “nuclear weapons state”.

He said that “when that moment came” Israel or the United States would have to decide whether to launch a military strike.

“The Iranians are determinedly going down a path to master all aspects of nuclear weapons; all the technologies they need,” he said. “It’s equally clear that Israel and the United States would face huge dangers if Iran were to become a nuclear weapon state.”

Sir John said that without MI6’s work dealing with the threat, “you’d have Iran as a nuclear weapons state in 2008 rather than still being two years away in 2012.”

Sir John said it was up to MI6 to “delay that awful moment when the politicians may have to take a decision between accepting a nuclear-armed Iran or launching a military strike against Iran.”

When that moment came, he said: “I think it will be very tough for any prime minister of Israel or president of the United States to accept a nuclear-armed Iran.”

Let's hope Obama isn't President by 2014.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:52 PM