nuclear-news

Nuclear bomb for Iran is not inevitable or imminent

“They’ve been creating the technical know-how and the infrastructure, but they haven’t made that decision, and there is much more time than the Israelis portray there to be. I don’t think an Iranian nuclear weapons capability is inevitable or imminent.”

No imminent threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, experts say LA Times, August 3, 2012 Israeli and U.S. politicians lately have been bandying about the prospect of an airstrike on Iranian nuclear facilities, stirring fear that another destabilizing clash could be provoked in a region already rife with civil war in Syria and other religious and political tensions.

But nonproliferation experts and Middle East analysts are skeptical of Israeli claims that the Tehran regime is so close to building a nuclear weapon that time is running out for a peaceful resolution of the decades-long standoff.

“This is a window that has been closing for 15 years now, and it’s
always imminently about to close,” said Jamal Abdi, policy director
for the National Iranian American Council. He sees the sudden flurry
of diplomacy between Jerusalem and Washington as an outgrowth of the
U.S. presidential campaign and Israeli interest in ensuring that the
United States continues to hold a hard line against Iran.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta was in Jerusalem on Wednesday
to urge Israeli leaders to let negotiations and sanctions do their
work before unleashing any military strike at facilities where Iran is
suspected of enriching uranium or storing the processed fuel for
potential upgrading to weapons’ quality.

His visit followed one Sunday by Mitt Romney, the presumptive
Republican presidential candidate who put the political spotlight on
tension between the nation and Iran by promising to “respect” any
decision Israel’s leadership takes to protect itself……. pressures
are mounting on Iran and raising the cost — both financially and
politically — of the regime’s nuclear pursuits, said Alireza Nader,
senior policy analyst on Iran for Rand Corp. He pointed to reports of
Iranian demonstrations against rising food prices and shortages, along
with demands, even from Iranian elites, that the government give
priority to social needs over nuclear investments.

“According to the U.S. intelligence community, the Iranian leadership
hasn’t even made the decision to weaponize their program,”  Nader
said. “They’ve been creating the technical know-how and the infrastructure, but they haven’t made that decision, and there is much more time than the Israelis portray there to be. I don’t think an Iranian nuclear weapons capability is inevitable or imminent.”
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/08/iran-not-yet-on-verge-of-obtaining-nuclear-weapons-experts-say.html

August 4, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, weapons and war