Israeli warplanes await S-300 sale to Iran
Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:05:32 GMT
Russia’s transfer of its S-300 air-defense systems to Iran would be the
trigger point for Israel to take Iran to war, says a US think-tank.
As Iran’s quest to obtain the sophisticated Russian-made anti-aircraft
missile system S-300 continues to spark controversy, a new
"Presidential Task Force" report on Iran by the Washington Institute
for Near East Policy warns about the consequences of Iran acquiring the
weapon.
The report says the potential transfer of the S-300 systems to Iran
"gives rise to the grave risk that Israel could feel compelled to act
before the cost of doing so is too high."
The bi-partisan authors of the document, titled, "Preventing a Cascade
of Instability," propose that the US "should promptly provide Israel
with the capabilities — modern aircraft — to continue to threaten
high-value Iranian targets" once Russia starts the S-300 delivery.
The "Presidential Task Force" report maintains that the US arms offer
to Israel could be used as leverage in pressuring Russia against the
sale of S-300 systems to Iran.
The "rebalance of the strategic equation" would come as a result of an
assessment of the S-300 system by US and Israeli weapons experts which
has described the weapon as an element that can effectively rule out a
successful attack against Iran.
"If Tehran obtained the S-300, it would be a game-changer in military
thinking for tackling Iran," says long-time Pentagon advisor Dan Goure.
The surface-to-air system tracks targets using a mobile radar station,
immune to jamming.
Aside from the modern aircraft the US has been advised to provide for
Israel, Israeli military experts have been on the move to enhance their
offensive capabilities.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is reportedly developing a killer
drone, known as Harop, which can be used against "anti-aircraft systems
and mobile or concealed ballistic missile launchers".
Harop, which is deployed as a "fire and forget" weapon, is designed to
travel over 1,000 kilometers to loiter over suspected locations to spot
and attack targets as they are exposed right before activation.
William Schneider, one of the authors of the report and a former under
secretary of state in the Reagan administration told a news conference
on Wednesday that Iran has ready access to enough fissile material to
produce up to 50 nuclear weapons should they decide to make such bombs.
"The ability to go from low enriched uranium to highly enriched
uranium, especially if [the Iranians] expand the number of centrifuges,
would be a relatively brief period of time, perhaps a year or so,
before they’d be able to produce a nuclear weapon," Schneider said.
In order for Iran to build a nuclear weapon, it needs to reconfigure
its existing centrifuge enrichment plant at Natanz to reprocess LEU
into weapons-grade HEU, or build clandestine facilities without the
knowledge of UN inspectors.
An UN nuclear watchdog official speaking on condition of anonymity
responded later by saying that the nuclear watchdog’s monitors and
surveillance equipment at the Iranian facilities have not detected any
reconfiguration activity on centrifuges, adding that there exists no
evidence that Iran is building a clandestine facility to produce the
highly enriched uranium needed for bomb fuel.
IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming for her part dismissed the possibility
of any such move by Iran explaining that, "No nuclear material could
have been removed from the facility without the agency’s knowledge
since the facility is subject to video surveillance and the nuclear
material has been kept under seal."
The report by the US think-tank adds that any attempt by the US to
hinder the sale of the S-300 systems to Iran should be done while
making clear that "the US objective is to delay an Israeli attack on
Iran’s nuclear facilities while the international community continues
its efforts to convince Iran to abandon its program."
Iran’s Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar visited Moscow last
month in what was widely believed to be in pursuit of the finalization
of a deal on the advanced Russian system.
While there was no official confirmation about the controversial
defense systems following the Iranian minister’s return, Evgenia Voiko,
an analyst from the Center for Current Politics — an analytical agency
close to the Kremlin — told Press TV that Russia would not let the
Iranian general return to his country empty-handed.
"The deals would be beneficial for Russia. Iran is one of Russia’s
largest military and technical partners. It would be imprudent to lose
such a promising customer," Voiko added.
Kommersant had earlier reported that while an $800 million contract for
five S-300 systems had already been signed between Iran and Russia,
Moscow has yet to make a decision on whether to deliver them.