Iran Issues Warning to Israel Over Reported Nuke Threat
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LONDON, Jan 7 (Reuters) – Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy
Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons,
Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper said.

Citing what it said were several Israeli military sources, the paper
said two Israeli air force squadrons had been training to blow up an
enrichment plant in Natanz using low-yield nuclear "bunker busters".

Two other sites, a heavy water plant at Arak and a uranium conversion
plant at Isfahan, would be targeted with conventional bombs, the
Sunday Times said.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously last month to slap
sanctions on Iran to try to stop uranium enrichment that Western
powers fear could lead to making bombs. Tehran insists its plans are
peaceful and says it will continue enrichment.

Israel has refused to rule out pre-emptive military action against
Iran along the lines of its 1981 air strike against an atomic reactor
in Iraq, although many analysts believe Iran’s nuclear facilities are
too much for Israel to take on alone.

An Israeli government spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, declined comment on the
Sunday Times report. Israel does not discuss its assumed atomic
arsenal, under an "ambiguity strategy" billed as warding off regional
foes while avoiding arms races.

"We don’t comment on stories like this in the Sunday Times," Eisin
said.

In Tehran, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini
told a news conference that the newspaper report "will make clear to
the world public opinion that the Zionist regime (Israel) is the main
menace to global peace and the region".

He said "any measure against Iran will not be left without a response
and the invader will regret its act immediately."

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be
"wiped off the map" and Israel has said it will not allow Iran to
acquire a bomb.

The Sunday Times quoted sources as saying a nuclear strike would only
be used if a conventional attack was ruled out and if the United
States declined to intervene. Disclosure of the plans could be
intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, the paper
added.

It said the Israeli plan envisaged conventional laser-guided bombs
opening "tunnels" into the targets. Nuclear warheads would then be
used fired into the plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to
reduce radioactive fallout.

Israeli pilots have flown to Gibraltar in recent weeks to train for
the 2,000 mile (3,200 km) round-trip to the Iranian targets, the
Sunday Times said, and three possible routes to Iran have been mapped
out including one over Turkey.

An Israeli defence source, who did not want to be identified, wrote
off the Sunday Times report as "psychological warfare".

"If we have such capabilities, I find it extremely unlikely that we
would use them in a ‘tactical strike’," the source said.

"Israel’s nuclear option, if it exists, is exclusively part of a
second-strike doctrine," the source said, referring to a deterrent
strategy whereby a country ensures it can retaliate massively for a
catastrophic attack on its territory. Washington has said military
force remains an option while insisting that its priority is to reach
a diplomatic solution.

Photo Copyright Getty Images
Copyright 2007 Reuters

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress