Sharon 'Supervises' Bids To Halt Iran's Nuclear Program

Sharon 'Supervises' Bids To Halt Iran's Nuclear Program

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, November 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is personally supervising efforts to stop Iran
from acquiring an alleged nuclear arsenal, Israeli army radio said on
Sunday, November 23.

Sharon has also instructed the foreign ministry to lobby other countries to
act to stop Iran's nuclear activities, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Mossad, Israels's overseas intelligence service, which is directly
answerably to Sharon, has been put in charge of "all other aspects" of
efforts to foil the Islamic republic's alleged covert nuclear program, the
radio said.

It added that the plan of action was drawn up during a special meeting
Sharon convened with Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom, Defense Minister Shaoul
Mofaz and Mossad agents.

On November 17, Mossad chief Meir Dagan told MPs that Iran's nuclear program
posed the biggest threat to Israel's existence since the country was come
into being in 1948.

Dagan claimed Israel had discovered Tehran was close to completing a uranium
enrichment plant in Kachan, central Iran, which could eventually give it the
capacity to build around a dozen nuclear bombs.

Defense Minister Mofaz later said concentrated efforts were needed "to
delay, stop or prevent" Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program.

During a visit to Washington earlier this month, Mofaz also warned that Iran
would reach a "point of no return" in its suspected nuclear program within a
year unless there were concerted efforts to stop it.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently released a report
accusing Iran of conducting covert nuclear activities over two decades,
including manufacturing plutonium, although it said there was no evidence as
yet that it was trying to build a nuclear bomb.

However, Iran promised on October 21 in an agreement with Britain, France
and Germany to sign the additional protocol the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) and delivered a letter formalizing this promise on November 10
to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

The additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was
created in 1997 after the IAEA discovered that previous inspections had not
been broad enough to uncover hidden nuclear activities in Iraq.

Israel's Growing Arsenal

At the time Israel is warning against Iran's alleged nuclear arsenal,
Israel's nuclear arsenal has grown from an estimated 13 nuclear bombs in
1967 to 400 nuclear and thermonuclear weapons to date, according to a report
published by The Los Angles Times on October 11.

Last year, the CIA and the Pentagon said in one of their reports that Israel
now has between 200 and 400 enhanced radiation and hydrogen weapons and a
United States Air Force report asserts that Israel is building a nuclear
naval force meant to respond to any nuclear strike, it added.

"For reactor design and construction, Israel sought the assistance of
France. Nuclear cooperation between the two nations dates back as far as the
early 1950's, when construction began on France's 40MWt heavy water reactor
and a chemical reprocessing plant at Marcoule.

In the fall of 1956, France agreed to provide Israel with an 18 MWt research
reactor."

On October 3, 1957, France and Israel signed a revised agreement calling for
France to build a 24 MWt reactor, known as Dimona, and, in protocols that
were not committed to paper, a chemical reprocessing plant, the LA Times
reported.

In early 1968, the CIA issued a report concluding that Israel had
successfully started production of nuclear weapons. (Click here to read the
history of Israel's nuclear arsenal.)

http://www.islamonline.net/English/Science/2002/07/article10.shtml

Israel, India and Pakistan are the only countries with nuclear facilities
that have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which was
initiated in 1968 to stop the spread of nuclear weapons through inspections
and sanctions.

It is widely known that U.S. intelligence agencies routinely omit Israel
from semiannual reports to Congress identifying countries developing weapons
of mass destruction to protect the country from any economic or military
sanctions.

http://islamonline.net