IF IRANIAN SANCTIONS FAIL!
ONLY TWO REALISTIC OPTIONS ARE LEFT!
BOMB OR START MULTIPLYING ANTI-MISSILE DEFENCES!
November 16, 2007
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
The first article from DEBKAfile’s military sources was received before the IAEA report
from the UN nuclear watchdog ElBaradei was actually official. The second article from the Jerusalem Post was received after the report was issued. It does appear the US and Israel only have two realistic options left in dealing with Iran if it keeps on its current frantic drive to produce uranium – either bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities or start multiplying the anti-missile defenses around all the Israeli military complexes, as well as US military installations in Iraq and the NATO nations.
Begin DEBKAfile Article
DEBKAfile’s military sources: Olmert’s instruction to prepare for a nuclear-armed Iran was leaked to Reuters hours before the nuclear watchdog’s ElBaradei released his report
November 15, 2007, 6:04 PM (GMT+02:00)
The agency indicates that the Israeli prime minister ordered cabinet officials in a secret memorandum to present proposals for “the day after” Iran owned atomic warheads, meaning the day after Israel loses the military edge of its monopoly as the only nuclear-armed nation in the Middle East.
Without disclosing the contents of the proposals, Reuters quotes two Israeli sources as referring to the long-term ramifications to be addressed on Israel’s security and response capabilities and the effect on the public.
DEBKAfile’s political analysts report: The leak, albeit denied by the PM’s spokesman, pointed to Olmert’s conviction that US-led diplomacy and sanctions for halting Iran’s acquisition of a nuclear weapon have reached a dead end, and the only option left to the US or Israel is a pre-emptive military strike, just as Israel bombed Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981.
The report Dr. Mohammed ElBaradei is due to present is not expected to prove otherwise.
Our sources note the proximity of the prime minister’s presumed leak to the US-promoted peace conference in Annapolis on Nov. 26.
What it says is that if the Bush administration cannot meet its pledge to prevent Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb, which is an existential threat to Israel, how can the same administration be trusted to deal effectively with the issue of an Israel- Palestinians settlement in consequence of the Annapolis meeting
?
It may therefore be postulated that the Israeli prime minister acted to derail the conference by drawing a red line which Israel refuses to cross in the interests of its security.
The Reuters report may even be his response to the “Israel should make painful sacrifices” speech which US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered to a Jewish audience Tuesday, Nov.13, in Nashville, Tennessee. Her argumentation sent a shudder through Israel’s intelligence and defense community.
Analysis of the speech, which the State Department quickly released in full plus video, shows strikingly that “Palestinian statehood” has been substituted for “Middle East peace” as a central US policy objective. Peace and peacemaking have therefore been exed out as a prerequisite for the Palestinians.
By presenting a Palestinian state as the main bulwark against Middle East extremists, she placed Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad at the forefront of the battle against Hizballah, Hamas and Iran, and deposited the security of the entire Middle East in their hands.
This thesis left Israeli security circles long familiar with the pair’s capabilities aghast – especially after their defeat in Gaza.
Therefore, the report claiming Olmert had given instructions to start preparing for a possible nuclear-armed Iran may equally apply to the bombshell Rice dropped on Israel’s head, and a signal to the Bush administration that Israel proposes to look after its own security rather than leaving it in other hands.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article
‘Iran trying to buy time while working on nuclear weapons’
JPost.com Staff and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST
November 16, 2007
The IAEA’s report on Iran’s nuclear activities released Thursday makes it clear that the international community must take firm action against Iran, because that nation continues to buck UN demands and develop its nuclear program, Israel said Friday.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the IAEA acknowledged in its report that Iran might not have reported all of its nuclear activities, increasing suspicion that Iran was trying to “buy time” on its way to nuclear weapons capability.
On Thursday, the long-awaited report found Iran to be generally truthful about key aspects of its nuclear history, but warned that its knowledge of Teheran’s present atomic work was shrinking.
The report also confirmed that Teheran continued to defy the UN Security Council by ignoring its repeated demands to freeze uranium enrichment – a potential pathway to nuclear arms.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called on the West to make a courageous apology to the Iranian people, since Teheran has told the truth about its nuclear program.
In a message broadcast Friday on several Iranian media outlets, Ahmadinejad declared that “the time has come for the US government to correct its behavior,” telling state television, “The whole world saw that their (US) allegations were not true and that Iran’s activities are clean and peaceful.”
“You (the US and allies) issued two resolutions based on wrong information,” the hard-line president said, referring to two earlier rounds of UN sanctions.
“Now that you have found out that this information was wrong, you have to be brave and come forward and tell the Iranian nation, ‘We made a mistake’ and apologize,” he said.
Ahmadinejad called the said the IAEA report “relatively realistic,” and praised IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei for publishing findings that are “to a great extent free from the pressure of some big powers.”
Leading Iranian cleric Ahmad Khatami also criticized the West, and demanded that the United States apologize to Iran.
“Iran won’t retreat in defending its rights. The US must apologize to the great Iranian nation for lying to the world,” Khatami said.
Meanwhile, Russia’s state-run nuclear fuel producer said Friday it would soon start shipping fuel to Russia’s Bushehr nuclear reactor.
According to Reuters, inspectors from the IAEA will arrive at the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrate Plant to begin sealing the fuel for shipment later this month, and will be working through November 29.
“We are ready to provide IAEA specialists with all the conditions they need to do their work,” Konstantin Grabelnikov, Novosibirsk deputy head, said in a statement
Also on Friday, Britain’s Foreign Office said Friday that talks planned for next week to discuss hardening sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program have been postponed, and officials were trying to set a new date.
A European Union official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Chinese could not attend due to scheduling problems.
China, along with Russia, is opposed to a hardening of sanctions against Teheran.
“Negotiations will be taking place over the next few days” to set a new date for a meeting, said a Foreign Office spokesman, on condition of anonymity in line with policy.
Talks between political directors of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany were planned for Monday, and had been expected to take place in Brussels.
Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency reported the meeting had been postponed because China had refused to attend.
China’s London embassy was not immediately available to comment on Friday.
Yaakov Katz contributed to this report.
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