Israel pressures U.S. on Iran, prepares its own attack
4/9/2006 9:45:00 AM GMT

(AFP Photo) Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard special forces participate in military manoeuvers

Israeli officials who paid a visit to Washington recently delivered an urgent message to the Bush administration from the Jewish state regarding Iran: The Islamic Republic is now closer than ever to producing nuclear bomb, and the moment of decision is approaching quickly, a Washington Post report published on Sunday said.

Israeli officials told members of U.S. government that Iran has begun the most advanced centrifugal experiments faster than experts previously predicted.

Yesterday, a New Yorker story by Seymour Hersh said that the U.S. government plans to launch a massive attack targeting Iranian facilities and development sites using nuclear bunker-busting bombs.

While Washington believes that Iran is decade away from acquiring a nuclear bomb; Israel believes that it will take the Iranians only a few months before producing such bomb, The Washington Post wrote.

• UN inspectors in Iran

Inspectors from the UN atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in Iran to check uranium enrichment and reprocessing plants, the first visit since the country blocked surprise inspections in February.

Inspectors are expected to begin their work today at the Esfahan Uranium Conversion Facility in central Iran, then make a visit to the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, Iran's deputy nuclear chief, Mohammed Saeedi, said.

Tehran insists that its nuclear program is solely used for peaceful purposes, mainly; generating electricity, rejecting U.S. and Israeli claims that it’s using its civilian program as a guise for hidden preparations to develop nuclear weapons.

• Israeli attack

The Washington Post report also said that Israel has already prepared its own attack plans in case Washington doesn’t act.

Plans Israel leaked recently include aerial attacks, commando raids, a possibility of a missile attack, and even bombs carried on the backs of dogs.

Israel has constructed an exact replica of the Natanz nuclear development facility, the paper added quoting Israeli newspapers.

The Bush administration is currently studying options for a military strike against Iran, and is planning for this possibility as a way of exerting more pressure on Iran letting it know that such an option is being considered and is actually getting closer.

However many experts within the Bush administration and outside of it are highly doubtful of the effectiveness of a military operation against the Islamic republic given the fact that the U.S. army is stretched thin in the country’s neighbor; Iraq.

But The Post said that the U.S. Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency are examining the possible targets for the operation, including Natanz and the facility for enriching uranium at Isfahan.

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