WarSclerotic

The United States is concerned that Iran would somehow be able to deceive the West and develop a nuclear weapon “under the radar,” and it is no longer certain that it would be able to learn of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s intentions to that effect ahead of time, Israel Hayom learned Sunday.

Despite the West’s attempts to carefully monitor Iran’s nuclear progress, a senior Western source told Israel Hayom that Tehran’s accelerated uranium enrichment efforts and the fact that it has multiple secret enrichment sites were cause for concern.

The U.S., the source said, “is very concerned for Israel and its other allies in the Middle East.”

Israel, for its part, is concerned that Iran will use the nuclear negotiations to mask its attempt to reach military-grade nuclear capabilities, and Israeli and American officials are trying to devise ways to affect the next round of talks with Tehran, which have been tentatively set for September.

“One month after the Iranian elections, Tehran is showing no signs of tempering its nuclear ambitions,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the ministers during Sunday’s cabinet meeting.

“We believe that now, more than ever, in light of Iran’s nuclear progress it is important to intensify the economic sanctions imposed on it and put in place a credible military option.”

Iran, he said, “is expanding and upgrading its [uranium] enrichment capabilities, while also developing a plutonium reactor and pursuing two different paths to get enough [fissile] material to build a nuclear bomb. Iran is also expanding its array of ballistic missiles. It does not pose a threat only to us, but to the West as well, and to the East.”

Netanyahu stressed that Israel will not relent on its demand that the international community impose crippling sanctions on the Islamic republic. “Iran muse cease any and all enrichment activities and shut down the Qom nuclear facility,” he said.

Also on Sunday, Netanyahu gave an interview on the CBS program “Face the Nation” in which he warned the West not become complacent over to election of apparent moderate Hasan Rouhani as the Iran’s new president, saying his strategy was that of “a wolf in sheep’s clothing — smile and build a bomb.”

Netanyahu warned Iran was “edging up to the red line. They haven’t crossed it yet. They’re also building faster centrifuges that would enable them to jump the line, so to speak, at a much faster rate. They can’t be allowed to get away with it. They’re getting closer and closer to the bomb, and they have to be told in no uncertain terms that that will not be allowed to happen.”

Netanyahu stressed in the interview that it was important for the U.S. to convey to the new Iranian leader that it will not abide a nuclear Iran: “We’ve spoken many times, President Obama and I, about the need to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. I know that is the U.S. policy. What is important is to convey to them, especially after the elections, that policy will not change and that it’ll be backed up by increasingly forceful sanctions and military action.”

The prime minister also stressed Israel’s sense of urgency vis-à-vis the Iranian threat, saying that “all the problems that we have [in the Middle East], however important, will be dwarfed by this messianic, apocalyptic, extreme regime that would have atomic bombs.”

He further pledged to protect Israel, saying, “I won’t wait until it’s too late. We are closer to Iran than the United States and therefore we’re more vulnerable. Our clocks are ticking at a different pace. … We’ll have to address this question of how to stop Iran perhaps before the United States does.”

Speaking about recent reports linking Israel to last week’s explosion at a Syrian missile depot in Latakia, Netanyahu said, “Every time something happens in the Middle East Israel is accused. I’m not in the habit of saying what we did or we didn’t do. I’ll tell you what my policy is. My policy is to prevent the transfer of dangerous weapons to Hezbollah and other terror groups. And we stand by that policy.”