Re: Those Nice, Nuke-Pursuing Iranians

How come the leftists don't care about Iranian or North Korean Nukes? I
thought nuclear weapons were bad?


"Dave Simpson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> The Europeans want to get tough, and scold them.  The US has agreed
> with this.
>
> (Is it because Iranian nuclear missiles would threaten Europe before
> they would threaten the USA, or because the USA remains the only
> nation able to respond to any future crisis, for which the Europeans
> will criticize us, and we currently are occupied in Iraq?)
>
> That'll make the Iranians reform, all right!
>
> Don't be surprised if Israel does what the West has failed to do.
>
> ...
>
> [Christian Science Monitor]
>
> Israel: Iran is now danger No. 1
>
> US, Britain, France, and Germany threatened Iran on Monday with
> sanctions over its nuclear program.
>
> by Nicole Gaouette
>
>
> Even as the US and European nations press Iran harder to comply with
> international law on its nuclear program, Israel is moving ahead with
> its own program to check its powerful Middle Eastern neighbor.
>
> Israel is working on a wide range of measures to undermine Iran's
> nuclear program, with senior leaders hinting that Israel may take
> preemptive action if that is deemed necessary. Analysts here suggest
> that action may include a strike similar to Israel's 1981 attack on
> Iraq's Osirak reactor.
>
> The Israeli initiative includes political, military, and intelligence
> wings of government and dovetails with US efforts to contain Iran
> within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
>
> The effort reflects the widespread assessment here that Iran poses a
> greater threat than Iraq has for the past decade and is gaining
> nuclear expertise more quickly than the US estimates.
>
> "Iran has a clandestine [nuclear] program that is very ambitious,"
> says Uzi Arad, director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy in
> Herzilya. "That country thinks big and fast and ... poses a threat
> that is very real. Should it acquire nuclear weapons or even come
> close, it would completely alter the Middle East. It's a very ominous
> threat."
>
> Analysts here argue that the prospect of a nuclear Iran would:
>
> * Threaten Israeli, US, and European security.
>
> * Harden Arab positions in any future peace negotiations.
>
> * Increase militancy and embolden hard-liners.
>
> * Destabilize the Gulf area.
>
> * And encourage other countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Libya, to
> follow suit.
>
>
> History of Iranian concealment
>
> The US, Britain, France, and Germany say that Iran has been concealing
> nuclear research for the past 18 years in pursuit of nuclear weapons,
> despite signing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970.
>
> On Monday, the four nations agreed on a strongly worded IAEA
> resolution promoted by the US that threatens the possibility of UN
> sanctions should Iran continue to violate its agreements.
>
> The US charges that Iran is also developing chemical and biological
> weapons, though the country is party to conventions curbing them.
> Furthermore, both the US and Israel say that Iran is trying to extend
> the range of its missiles, which could be used to develop such
> weapons.
>
> Already, the 810-mile reach of Iran's Shahab-3 missile puts Israel and
> US forces in the region in striking range. The US charges that Iran
> will probably try to develop missiles capable of hitting Western
> Europe or the US itself.
>
> Iran has admitted to concealing aspects of its atomic energy program,
> but says it is pursuing alternate energy sources, a claim the State
> Department dismissed as "simply not credible."
>
> In testimony to the US-Israeli Joint Parliamentary Committee in
> September, State Department official Paula DeSutter said, "The impact
> of a nuclear-armed Iran in an already volatile region cannot be
> underestimated. As President Bush had made clear, that cannot be
> allowed to happen."
>
> Israeli officials have echoed that declaration. In November, Israeli
> media reported that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, on a trip to
> Washington, told US officials that "under no circumstances would
> Israel be able to abide by nuclear weapons in Iranian possession."
>
>
> 'Existential threat' to Israel?
>
> Meir Dagan, director of Israel's external intelligence agency, the
> Mossad, told a parliamentary committee this month that Iran posed an
> "existential threat" to Israel, according to the Yedioth Ahronoth
> newspaper. He reportedly assured committee members that Israel could
> deal with this threat.
>
> Like the US, Israel estimates that Iran is three to four years away
> from building a nuclear bomb. But Israel believes that in 2004, Iran
> will reach the point at which their nuclear program cannot be stopped.
>
> On the same US trip, Mr. Mofaz told a pro-Israeli lobby group that a
> nuclear Iran was "intolerable."
>
> "The implicit message of his statements was that if the Iranian
> nuclear program is not stopped in the next number of months, Israel
> will have to take action of its own -- perhaps even to attack -- to
> prevent nuclear weapons from falling into Iranian hands," analyst Amir
> Rappaport wrote in the Ma'ariv newspaper.
>
> It would not be the first time Israel has taken preemptive action
> against a perceived threat. In 1981, Israeli fighter jets launched a
> successful surprise attack on Iraq's Osirak reactor, destroying it.
>
>
> A push against Iran on all fronts
>
> In the meantime, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has upgraded
> Israel's efforts against Iran's nuclear program by putting all related
> committees under Mr. Dagan's command. Mr. Sharon himself will head a
> ministerial committee.
>
> In this multipronged effort, Israel's foreign ministry will launch a
> diplomatic campaign to persuade other countries to work against Iran's
> nuclear program. The Mossad will work with foreign intelligence
> agencies, the National Security Council will work with the US-Israeli
> Joint Committee, and Israel's atomic energy body will focus on
> technical aspects of Iran's program and work with the IAEA.
>
> Israel's concern about Iran stems from the country's proximity, its
> longstanding hostility to Israel, and its support for groups like
> Lebanese Hizbullah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad.
>
> While these groups launch attacks on Israel and its citizens with
> Iranian support, some analysts here say there remains the potential
> for direct confrontation between the nations of Iran and Israel.
>
> Zeev Maghen, a senior research associate at Bar Ilan University near
> Tel Aviv who studies Iran, disagrees, but he acknowledges, "The amount
> of hostility that has built up in the world in general, and the
> Islamic world in particular, against my country might push someone
> over the edge."
>
> "We're the pariah country," Mr. Maghen adds.
>
> A nuclear Iran would also erode Israel's strategic edge. Israel's
> military, the world's 14th largest by budget, according to the Center
> for Defense Information, is vastly superior to any of its Middle East
> counterparts. Israel is also widely understood to have an arsenal of
> nuclear and other weapons, though officials deny this. It is not a
> signatory to the NPT.
>
> "Israel has kept an ambiguous posture about this," says Mr. Arad, "but
> clearly, should Iran become nuclear, it would clearly be an adverse
> development. The country supports terrorism, has taken a militant line
> against the peace process, is hostile to the US, and is active in
> anti-American attacks [in Iraq]. It clearly poses a very serious
> threat to everybody."
>
> ...
>
> [Agence France-Presse]
>
> Israel vows to continue to study Iranian nuclear activities
>
>
> Iran's arch-enemy Israel said Wednesday it would continue to carefully
> monitor Tehran's nuclear activities after the UN's atomic watchdog
> condemned Tehran for two decades of covert nuclear activities.
>
> "We are still studying this resolution but we will continue to follow
> closely the worrying attempts by Iran to develop weapons of mass
> destruction, as is the international community as a whole," foreign
> ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled told AFP.
>
> "We will have to see if Iran reveals, or if it is revealed, what it
> has been up to," Peled added.
>
> A resolution adopted Wednesday by the 35-nation board of directors of
> the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna balanced US
> calls to condemn Iran for 18 years of hidden nuclear activities that
> included making plutonium and European demands that Iran be rewarded
> for cooperating since October with the IAEA.
>
> The United States dropped demands to take Iran immediately before the
> UN Security Council for "non-compliance" with the nuclear
> Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
>
> However Washington secured a guarantee, considered a "trigger
> mechanism" in the resolution, which says that if "any further Iranian
> failures come to light, the Board of Governors would meet immediately
> to consider ... all options at its disposal."
>
> Since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, Israel has come
> to regard the Islamic fundamentalist administration in Tehran as its
> number one enemy.
>
> Earlier this month, Meir Dagan, head of Israel's Mossad overseas
> intelligence service, told MPs that Iran's nuclear programme posed the
> biggest threat to Israel's existence since the country was created in
> 1948.
>
> Dagan also said Israel had discovered in the last three months that
> Iran was close to finishing construction of a uranium enrichment plant
> in the central Kachan area which could eventually give it the capacity
> to build around a dozen nuclear bombs.
>
> Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is personally supervising efforts to stop
> Iran from acquiring a nuclear arsenal, Israeli army radio reported on
> Sunday.
>
> A plan of action had been drawn up during a special meeting Sharon
> convened with Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom, Defence Minister Shaoul
> Mofaz and Mossad agents, the radio said.
>
> Iran on Tuesday slammed Israel's campaign to convince the world that
> the Islamic republic is intent on acquiring a nuclear weapon.
>
> "The falsification of the facts and negative propaganda about Iran's
> civilian nuclear activities are totally motivated by the hostility of
> the Zionist regime," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi
> said.