JERUSALEM -- Israel, taking seriously reports that Teheran has
nuclear bombs, has accused the United States of failing to have stopped
Iran's weapons programs.
Israeli officials said the reported CIA assessment that Iran might have
already acquired nuclear bombs has sparked concern in Jerusalem. They said
Prime Minister Ehud Barak will point to this report in pressing for aid to
help bolster Israeli deterrence in the Middle East.
Iran, the officials said, aims to complete the Shihab-3 and Shihab-4
ballistic missile programs. The Shihab-4, the range of which is estimated at
2,400 kilometers, is being developed to carry a nuclear warhead.
"The United States, to tell the truth, failed in its efforts to prevent
this project,'' Israeli deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said. "We need
to continue to build against them a wall of deterrence, perhaps different
and greater than the one we have today.''
Sneh is regarded as one of the government's leading experts on Iran's
missile and nuclear weapons programs. For years, he has warned that Iran
intends to develop missiles with nuclear warheads that can reach Israel and
Europe.
"It's clear that such missiles with such a large radius and warhead
capability are not intended to solve their problems with Iraq, their enemy
neighbor,'' Sneh told Israel Radio.
Sneh said Russian help to Iranian strategic programs continue
unhindered. He said U.S. efforts to stop Russia from transferring technology
to Teheran have failed.
The deputy minister also blamed Europe for extending loans to the
Islamic regime. "European nations did not help the United States with this
and they weren't really cooperative in the coalition against Iranian
achievement of nuclear capability,'' he said.
Sneh repeated that Israel must be willing to stop Iran's nuclear program
even without Western help. In the past, Sneh raised the prospect of a
preemptive strike.
"There is a list of other things [that should be done]," he said. "But
I'm not sure they should be discussed publicly."
