Iran now has enough uranium for four nuclear weapons, according to this report. There seems to be little sense of urgency about a nuclear Iran at the United Nations, which has settled for an endless cycle of issuing reports, issuing incrementally more restrictive sanctions, and waiting another few months or a year to see what happens. And the same thing happens. Iran continues its stonewalling, interspersed with lip service toward cooperation, and keeps working on its nuclear program. It is Iran’s own conduct that draws suspicion: it would be awfully costly for the country to refuse to cooperate with the rest of the world just for fun.
If this process is allowed to repeat itself indefinitely at the UN, the likely outcome, and the one that threatens Israel most directly, is that we will all awaken one morning to news of an Iranian nuclear test.
The kind of detail present about the types of equipment and tactics below suggests either one nasty leak, or that the three governments are looking for ways to break the cycle of going through the motions at the UN, and to leverage substantive progress against the eventuality of a nuclear Iran by reminding the Islamic Republic that all options are on the table.
“UK and U.S. ‘draw up joint plan to attack Iran’: Evidence of nuclear programme raises tension in Middle East,” by Ian Drury for the Daily Mail, November 3:
The UK and U.S. are drawing up plans to attack Iran amid growing tensions in the Middle East, it was claimed last night.
Barack Obama and David Cameron are preparing for war after reports that Iran now has enough enriched uranium for four nuclear weapons.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hardline regime in Tehran has been linked to three assassination plots on foreign soil, according to senior officials in Whitehall.
Iran has come sharply back into focus following the end of the Libya conflict.
It’s Israel’s fault:
And the unrest has been inflamed by sabre-rattling from top politicians in Israel.
Yesterday it was revealed that Tel Aviv had successfully test-fired a rocket capable of carrying a nuclear warhead which could strike Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak are reportedly agitating for a pre-emptive attack against the Islamic state.
The UK would be likely to agree to any U.S. decision to invade, even though the Ministry of Defence are stretched to breaking point by swingeing budget cuts and wars in Afghanistan and Libya.
An MoD spokesman said: “˜The British government believes that a dual track strategy of pressure and engagement is the best approach to address the threat from Iran’s nuclear programme and avoid regional conflict.
“˜We want a negotiated solution — but all options should be kept on the table.”
A special unit at the MoD has been instructed to work out the UK’s strategy if the Army should invade Iran.
War planners will look at potential deployments of Royal Navy ships and submarines equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles and RAF fighter jets armed with precision-guided Paveway IV and Brimstone bombs and missiles, surveillance planes and air-to-air refuelling.
Senior Whitehall figures have expressed alarm that Iran appeared “˜newly aggressive — and we are not quite sure why”.
Western intelligence has also suggested that Iran is hiding the material for a covert nuclear weapons programme in fortified bunkers which cannot be reached by conventional missiles.
Barack Obama is understood to have no wish to attack Iran in the run-up to the White House elections next year. But Washington may be pressured by Israel if Iran’s nuclear programme is not curtailed.
Mr Netanyahu is apparently also lobbying Cabinet members for a military strike, despite the likelihood it would draw a retaliation from Iran….