Iran's bombBolton: Israel should attack Iran's reactor by this week's end
Since 1960, Israel relied on covert — and, at times, less covert — campaign to prevent Egypt, Iraq, and Syria from acquiring nuclear weapons; in the cases if Iraq (1981) and Syria (2007), Israel destroyed these countries’ nuclear reactors before they became critical; the reason: destroying nuclear reactors before they become critical eliminates the risk of radioactive radiation from the destroyed reactor spreading over large areas, as was the case with the Chernobyl reactor following the 1986 accident; Russian state firm Rosatom announced last week that it would be starting loading nuclear fuel into the Bushehr facility on 21 August, and that the plant would become operation on that day; will Israel launch a strike against the plant before that date?
Are they ready to go? // Source: ncf.ca
In June 1981 Israel destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, thwarting Sadam Hussein’s effort to build a plutonium bomb. In September 2007 Israel destroyed a Syrian nuclear reactor in its early building stages before North Korea could supply it with fissile material. In both cases, Israel destroyed the reactors before they became critical — that is, before a nuclear chain reaction was initiated. The reason: destroying the reactor before it became critical eliminated the risk of radioactive radiation from the destroyed reactor spreading over large areas, as was the case with the Chernobyl reactor (see “What’s past is prologue: Israel’s covert campaign against Iran’s nuclear program,” 11 June 2009 HSNW).
This is why former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said yesterday (Tuesday) that Israel has until this weekend to launch a military strike on Iran’s first nuclear plant.
Fox News reports that Russian company is expected to help Iran start loading nuclear fuel into the Bushehr reactor on Saturday, after which an attack on the plant could trigger harmful radiation, which Israel wants to avoid, Bolton said. So unless the Israelis act immediately to shut down the facility, it will be too late.
“Once it’s close to the reactor … the risk is when the reactor is attacked, there will be a release of radiation into the air,” Bolton told FoxNews.com. “It’s most unlikely that they would act militarily after fuel rods are loaded.”
Earlier Tuesday, Bolton told Fox Business Network the Israelis will have to move in the “next eight days” if they want to attack the Bushehr facility — a reference to the window between when the start-up was announced last week and the loading date. Bolton said Tuesday that the date has fluctuated, but he described the start-up as the ultimate deadline.
Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, told Fox News that Israel is hopeful sanctions — passed by the United Nations, European Union, and United States — will “modify” Iran’s behavior. Oren said Israel is “committed” to the sanctions program and will assess its impact at a later date.
“Until that time, the position of the government of Israel — as the position of the Obama administration — is that all options will remain on the table,” he said, without commenting directly on Bolton’s remarks.
Iranian officials insist the reactor is for peaceful purposes, but Bolton warned about the danger of the up-and-running reactor. “What this does is give Iran a second route to nuclear weapons in addition to enriched uranium,” Bolton said. “It’s a very, very huge victory for Iran.”
Bolton, who was U.S. ambassador during the Bush administration, expressed doubt that Israel was planning a military strike but suggested it is an open question. “If they were going to do anything, they certainly wouldn’t be talking about it,” he said.
He noted that the reactor gives Iran something that both Iraq and Syria were never able to achieve because their facilities were destroyed. “Iran will have achieved something that no other opponent of Israel, no other enemy of the United States really in the Middle East has, and that is a functioning nuclear reactor,” he said on Fox Business Network.
Iranian officials on Tuesday warned Israel not to take military action. Iranian media quoted Ahmad Vahidi, Iran’s defense minister, as saying Israel would be taking a huge risk with such an attack. “We may lose a power plant, but the whole existence of the Zionist regime will be jeopardized,” Vahidi was quoted as saying.
Fox News notes that the reactor project has been in existence for decades — it was started under the Shah with West German companies doing most of the work — but the Russians have helped push it to the finish line. Russian state firm Rosatom announced last week that the Bushehr facility would be starting up on 21 August. According to the Iranian state Mehr news agency, the head of that company, Sergey Novikov, says the plant “just generates electricity.”
