Israel has ‘8 days’ to hit Iran nuclear site: Bolton
Washington
AFP
Israel has “eight days” to launch a military strike against Iran’s Bushehr nuclear facility and stop Tehran from acquiring a functioning atomic plant, a former US envoy to the UN has said.
Iran is to bring online its first nuclear power reactor, built with Russia’s help, on August 21, when a shipment of nuclear fuel will be loaded into the plant’s core.
At that point, John Bolton warned Monday, it will be too late for Israel to launch a military strike against the facility because any attack would spread radiation and affect Iranian civilians.
“Once that uranium, once those fuel rods are very close to the reactor, certainly once they’re in the reactor, attacking it means a release of radiation, no question about it,” Bolton told Fox Business Network.
“So if Israel is going to do anything against Bushehr it has to move in the next eight days.”
Absent an Israeli strike, Bolton said, “Iran will achieve something that no other opponent of Israel, no other enemy of the United States in the Middle East really has and that is a functioning nuclear reactor.”
But when asked whether he expected Israel to actually launch strikes against Iran within the next eight days, Bolton was skeptical.
“I don’t think so, I’m afraid that they’ve lost this opportunity,” he said.
The controversial former envoy to the United Nations criticized Russia’s role in the development of the plant, saying “the Russians are, as they often do, playing both sides against the middle.”
“The idea of being able to stick a thumb in America’s eye always figures prominently in Moscow,” he added.
Iran dismissed the possibilities of such an attack from its archfoes.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday that “these threats of attacks had become repetitive and lost their meaning.”
“According to international law, installations which have real fuel cannot be attacked because of the humanitarian consequences,” he told reporters at a news conference in Tehran.
Iranian officials say Iran has stepped up defensive measures at the Bushehr plant to protect it from any attacks.
Russia has been building the Bushehr plant since the mid-1990s but the project was marred by delays, and the issue is hugely sensitive amid Tehran’s standoff with the West and Israel over its nuclear ambitions.
The UN Security Council hit Tehran with a fourth set of sanctions on June 9 over its nuclear programme, and the United States and European Union followed up with tougher punitive measures targeting Iran’s banking and energy sectors.
The Bushehr project was first launched by the late shah in the 1970s using contractors from German firm Siemens. But it was shelved when he was deposed in the 1979 Islamic revolution.
It was revived after the death of revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, as Iran’s new supreme leader Ali Khamenei and his first president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, backed the project.
In 1995, Iran won the support of Russia which agreed to finish building the plant and fuel it.
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Wild Thing’s comment……..
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad …….POOF!
Israel knows what it is doing. , prayers for Israel.
….Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
I guess we can always hope for an accident at the plant.
Now there will be two islamic countries with nuclear capability, Iran and Pakistan. Both are very unstable countries. I think this will eventually lead to a big problem as they develop long range rockets that can deliver nukes. Also, we have to worry about them arming terrorist groups with nuclear material.
And our boy in charge, obama, is working on reducing our nuclear arsenal. Shit!
“Boy in Charge”. That’s what we have. Someone playing at being President.
Guaranteed, if the Israelis do pull off such a manuver, they definitely will not be inhibited by “ROE’s”, ala our troops in Afghanistan. Thanks again to the Boy President.
Thank God we don’t have an agressive next door neighbor with nuclear capabilities. We would be toast, especially with our current, “Why can’t we all be friend?” President. Hell we may be anyway, the way things are going.
Do not need another war at this time. Having the bomb does not automatically lead to using it. If they use it, that is another matter. Must have alies, lots of them and dedicated ones to take on Iran. That sort of world opinion will not happen unless Iran uses their bomb or otherwise starts a war, first. The bush doctrine, (or is that the Cheny doctrine?) of preemtive war is a risky business. Three active fronts at a time is too many, even for the U.S.A. to manage nicely.
To add to Toms comment. Iran is neighbors with Afghanistan it may only have Scuds, that we know of, but they could reach anyplace in that country.
So Israel is not the only target for these dickweeds. Captain ‘Lack of nuts’ or ‘He who sleeps with big Hips’ ought to resing and get somebody in there who knows what the hell he’s doing.
Bomb, bomb, bomb,
Bomb, bomb, Iran!
(Just like Vince Vannce and the Valiants sang in ’79.)
Prayers for our world, Wild Thing.
These times we live in are serious, precarious, and consequential.
Elections have consequences.
I’m not sure what side our own current Commander in Chief is on.
Prayers for our world, Wild Thing.
These times we are living are serious, precarious, and consequential.
Elections have consequences.
I’m not sure what side our own Commander in Chief is on.
Thank you so much.
Yes bomb bomb bomb.