Oren: Setting Iran back by only a few years still worth strike
Oren: Setting Iran back by only a few years still worth strike | The Times of Israel.
Ambassador to US says Israel cannot afford to wait to hit Iranian nuclear sites
Israel’s ambassador to the US said Wednesday that Israel would be willing to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, even if doing so only set their program back a few years.
Speaking to Bloomberg in Washington, Michael Oren said that gaining even a little extra time would be worth a military operation against Tehran’s program, which Israel maintains is aimed at developing a nuclear weapon and not for civilian use as the Islamic Republic claims.
“One, two, three, four years are a long time in the Middle East — look what’s happened in the last year” Oren said, referring to the Arab Spring and the on-going political upheaval in the region. “In our neighborhood, those are the rules of the game.”
The comments were likely a brush back against statements made by US Joint Chiefs of Staff head Martin Dempsey the day before. Dempsey said that an Israeli strike would only set back Iran’s nuclear program by one year.
Oren said Israeli officials in 1981 believed a strike on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear facility would only set Baghdad back by one or two years. The Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq’s reactor on June 7, 1981, in an attack criticized around the world.
“To this day, Iraq does not have a nuclear weapon,” Oren said.
Officials, notably Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have used the Osirak case as proof that an Israeli strike can be effective.
The US is reportedly working to stop a unilateral strike by Israel, with Israel’s Channel 10 news claiming that US President Barack Obama will reportedly offer Israel assurances that Washington will back Jerusalem if it is willing to give sanctions and diplomatic measures more time to work.
Reports in Israel have ramped up in recent weeks that Israel is looking to hit Iran in the early fall, before the US presidential election. According to reports, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are proponents of a strike, though much of the military brass opposes the move.
Oren said the timing was not meant to force Obama’s hand and drag the US into a war, as some reports have suggested.
“The issue is not the American elections,” he stated. “The issue is the degree to which the Iranian program has reached a critical point where they can begin to put together nuclear weapons.”
On Wednesday, Dempsey and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta seemed to launch a renewed public offensive against an Israeli strike, telling reporters that Israel had not decided to strike and going it alone would fail to cause much damage to Iran’s nuclear program.
A joint strike with US involvement is believed to be the preferred option, as the US reportedly possesses weapons that could destroy nuclear facilities buried deep underground, like the Fordo nuclear plant south of Tehran.
On Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney reiterated Washington’s stance, that sanctions and diplomacy must be given time to work and that Iran had not yet “broken out” toward a bomb.
Oren rebuffed those claims, saying several rounds of diplomatic efforts have borne no fruit. “Iranians show no signs of flexibility in negotiations,” he said.
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WarSclerotic 
August 16, 2012 at 8:26 AM
Reblogged this on TeMe.
August 16, 2012 at 1:02 PM
The press in the US has been reluctant to discuss Islam in general and Shia eschatology in particular for so long that even journalists have fallen behind in understanding what is going on. It is sad to see that the US press has reverted to the methods of censorship which were once the hallmark of the Soviet Union. But as they then, the US press today has no feedback from people who think differently and will therefore be shocked when Israel does attack the Iranian nuclear facilities. The reason Israel will attack the Iranian nuclear facilities is actually quite straightforward. The choice is stark, either use everything you’ve got to delay Iran getting the bomb for a year and hope that something will change in the meantime, like the American electorate electing a president who does not promote the Muslim Brotherhood, of face being incinerated by the Mahdi seeking apocalyptic Twelvers. Simply put, Israel has no other choice, and when someone has no other choice they do things which to others would seem incredible.
Telling the truth about the Iranian threat, drop by drop
http://www.madisdead.blogspot.co.il/2012/08/telling-truth-about-iranian-threat-drop.html
August 16, 2012 at 4:21 PM
““Iranians show no signs of flexibility in negotiations,” he said.”
That’s funny, there have been no negotiations. The US enters the meeting demanding a full stop on enrichment. Iran enters the same meeting demanding recognition of their right to enrich uranium. Both parties exchange recipes, talk about the weather, perhaps tell some jokes, and then agree to meet again somewhere in the future.
August 16, 2012 at 5:11 PM
Hmm…Hit the facitlies now. Even if they are set back two more years, isn’t that two more years for more diplomacy to succeed?