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Sharon Requests Mossad To Stop Iran’s Nuclear Plans

By Gary Fitleberg on 12/05/03
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Israel has the intelligence that Iran is not developing a nuclear program
for peaceful purposes but foe weapons of mass destruction. Israel is taking
this issue very seriously.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held a special meeting on the Iranian nuclear
threat, deciding that he would personally oversee Israel's efforts to
scuttle Iran's plans to produce nuclear weapons.

Sharon also decided that the Foreign Ministry will concentrate diplomatic
efforts to convince world leaders to take steps against the Iranian threat.

The Mossad will be responsible for all other issues connected to scuttling
the plans.

The discussion on Iran had been postponed a number of times. The meeting was
attended by Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and
senior officials from the Israel Defense Forces, the Mossad and the National
Security Council.

Last week, Mossad chief Meir Dagan told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and
Defense Committee that the Iranian nuclear potential is an existential
threat to the State of Israel.

"We believe the Iranians will continue developing nuclear military projects
and in their hands such weapons pose, for the first time, an existential
threat to Israel," he said.

Dagan said the reactor in Bushehr is large, has a 100-megawatt capacity and
is scheduled to be operative by the end of 2004 or the beginning of 2005.

The Iranians, he said, are also about to complete a uranium-enriching plant
in Kashan. If no special technological problems arise, this plant may reach
a production potential of 10 nuclear bombs, he said.

Dagan said that Iran's nuclear activity was exposed by exiled Iranian
sources in the United States.

Dagan said the Iranians invested dozens of billions of dollars in the
nuclear project, which "has no economic justification, unless they intend to
arm themselves with nuclear arms."

During a trip to Vienna last week, Shalom met with the head of the
International Atomic Energy Agency Chairman, Mohammed El-Baradei. The
meeting was held in advance of an IAEA session relating to Iran's nuclear
program.

Shalom told the IAEA chairman that nuclear weapons in Iran's possession
would pose a threat not just to Israel, but to the world at large. Shalom
asked El-Baradei whether he believes Iran has relinquished ambitions of
attaining nuclear weapons.

The IAEA chairman replied it has not been easy for the Iranians to do what
they have already done (disclosing their nuclear efforts, and consenting to
inspectors). The international community, El-Baradei added, expected Iran to
carry out some additional steps.

"I know you [Israelis] are skeptical, and I too am skeptical," said the IAEA
chairman. He added that Iranians are unlikely to agree conclusively
to "cessation" of their nuclear activity until they are sure they will
receive favorable trade arrangements or technology transfers in return.

The IAEA chairman did not bring up Israel's nuclear program in the
discussion. Instead, he spoke generally about the importance of regional
arrangements.

There is enough documentary evidence to realize that Iran is bent on the
intent of building a nuclear program not for peaceful purposes but for
weapons of mass destruction.

Israel is the nearest neighbor with the most to lose. Israel’s survival
depends on its intelligence to recognize imminent threats. The international
community must pay close attention to the obvious signs of activities not
intended for peaceful purposes as Iran promises but should base its
conclusion on a clear pattern of concealment. The world can not afford to be
wrong.

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