Israel concludes Obama has agreed to Iran nukes
Thursday, July 23, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
TEL AVIV Ñ Israel is preparing for a compromise agreement by Western powers that would approve Iran's uranium enrichment program.
Officials and analysts said the European Union and United States were moving toward an offer that would enable Teheran to continue to enrich uranium. They said the proposal was expected to be submitted to Iran over the next few months.
"I heard, unenthusiastically, the Americans' statement that they will defend their allies in the event that Iran arms itself with an atomic bomb, as if they have already reconciled with this possibility, and this is a mistake," Dan Meridor, an Israeli Cabinet minister responsible for the intelligence community, said. "We don't need to deal now with the assumption that Iran will attain nuclear weapons, rather prevent this."
On July 21, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States would offer defense guarantees to its allies should Teheran assemble nuclear weapons.
"We want Iran to calculate what I think is a fair assessment: that if the United States extends a defense umbrella over the region, if we do even more to develop the military capacity of those [allies] in the Gulf, it is unlikely that Iran will be any stronger or safer," Ms. Clinton said.
"We have been receiving signals that Washington will support a compromise that will allow Iran to enrich uranium under international supervision," an official said.
Israeli officials and analysts viewed Ms. Clinton's statement as a signal that the United States would tolerate an Iranian nuclear weapons arsenal. They said the Obama administration was resigned to the likelihood that Iran has already completed the nuclear fuel cycle, developed a nuclear warhead and could assemble an atomic bomb within weeks.
Leading Israeli analysts agreed that Obama has virtually eliminated a U.S. military option against Iran. Instead, the White House was preparing to offer a compromise that would grant approval to Iran's uranium enrichment program, banned by the United Nations Security Council.
"Both the United States and the European Union are coming to the conclusion that Iran will turn nuclear in any case, so there is a need for a compromise," Ephraim Kam, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, said.
Officials said the prospect of a Western compromise offer to Iran would mark a leading subject in discussions with a visiting U.S. defense delegation.
On July 29, a U.S. delegation, including National Security Advisor James Jones, presidential adviser Dennis Ross as well as senior members of the U.S. intelligence community, was scheduled to arrive in Israel in an effort to resume a strategic dialogue regarding Iran.
"Understand that a nuclear-armed Iran could provide a nuclear umbrella to terrorists, and it could possibly provide nuclear weapons to terrorists," Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told American Jewish leaders in a conference call on July 21.
"I think for the sake of the peace of the world and the security of my own country and that of the United States, this must not be allowed to happen."