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Israel ready to strike Iran: ex-envoy
Jason Koutsoukis in Jerusalem
February 14, 2009
A FORMER senior Israeli diplomat has warned that Israel is ready to launch a military offensive against Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
In an exclusive interview, Dan Gillerman, Israel's permanent United Nations representative from 2003 until last September, said the time for diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear capability might already have expired.
"The world cannot afford to live with a nuclear Iran," he said. "I hope diplomacy will work, but I'm not sure we have the time for [it] to work.
"Israel has made it very clear that it will not live with a nuclear Iran, and I believe that Israel has the ability and the capacity to make sure that it will not happen."
Mr Gillerman, who is to visit Australia this month and is one of Israel's most senior diplomatic voices, said two clocks were running with respect to Iran. "There is the technological clock of Iran, and there is the diplomatic clock, and I think the Iranian clock is running much faster.
"Israel has both the responsibility to defend itself and the capacity to defend itself, and I am sure that when the time comes and all other options have been exhausted, Israel will act in the only way it must to protect its people."
Detailed military plans to bomb Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities have long been on the table of Israel's senior military commanders.
Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, was believed to have requested support from the US for a military strike on Iran last May, but the plans were aborted after president George Bush declined to endorse them.
Last June Israel carried out a military exercise over the Mediterranean involving more than 100 F-16 and F-15 fighters in what was interpreted as a rehearsal for a bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
On Tuesday the man most likely to lead Israel's next government, the Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, made a direct reference to Iran in his speech claiming victory in general elections.
"Israel is facing an Iranian threat, from afar and from near. The nuclear threat and the terror threat … it will be up to us to deal with this, and we will be able to deal with these two challenges successfully."
Shaul Mofaz, the former Israel Defence Forces chief-of-staff, who is in line to become defence minister, also warned last June that Israel might have no choice but to attack Iran.
Israel has carried out two air strikes against suspected nuclear sites in the past 30 years.
In 1981 its jets conducted a raid against Iraq's nuclear plant at Osirak, and in September 2007 it bombed a structure in Syria that was believed to have housed a nuclear reactor.
However, any attack against Iran would be a much more complicated military exercise, with Iran's uranium enrichment facilities spread across numerous sites.
Iran's comparatively sophisticated military, and its distance from Israel could present further complications for Israeli military planners, and risk setting off a full-scale war.
Mr Gillerman warned that the world could not afford to underestimate the seriousness of the Iranian threat.
"We have a very extreme, radical fundamentalist regime there with a President who denies the Holocaust while preparing the next one, and has vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the map," he said.
"My advice to the rest of the world is to listen to him very carefully and take him at face value and take him seriously.
"We all paid a huge price for not taking seriously the ranting of another small, moustached leader who some people considered as crazy, and I don't think we have the luxury to show the same indifference and apathy as we did before."
Jason Koutsoukis in Jerusalem
February 14, 2009
A FORMER senior Israeli diplomat has warned that Israel is ready to launch a military offensive against Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
In an exclusive interview, Dan Gillerman, Israel's permanent United Nations representative from 2003 until last September, said the time for diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear capability might already have expired.
"The world cannot afford to live with a nuclear Iran," he said. "I hope diplomacy will work, but I'm not sure we have the time for [it] to work.
"Israel has made it very clear that it will not live with a nuclear Iran, and I believe that Israel has the ability and the capacity to make sure that it will not happen."
Mr Gillerman, who is to visit Australia this month and is one of Israel's most senior diplomatic voices, said two clocks were running with respect to Iran. "There is the technological clock of Iran, and there is the diplomatic clock, and I think the Iranian clock is running much faster.
"Israel has both the responsibility to defend itself and the capacity to defend itself, and I am sure that when the time comes and all other options have been exhausted, Israel will act in the only way it must to protect its people."
Detailed military plans to bomb Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities have long been on the table of Israel's senior military commanders.
Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, was believed to have requested support from the US for a military strike on Iran last May, but the plans were aborted after president George Bush declined to endorse them.
Last June Israel carried out a military exercise over the Mediterranean involving more than 100 F-16 and F-15 fighters in what was interpreted as a rehearsal for a bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
On Tuesday the man most likely to lead Israel's next government, the Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, made a direct reference to Iran in his speech claiming victory in general elections.
"Israel is facing an Iranian threat, from afar and from near. The nuclear threat and the terror threat … it will be up to us to deal with this, and we will be able to deal with these two challenges successfully."
Shaul Mofaz, the former Israel Defence Forces chief-of-staff, who is in line to become defence minister, also warned last June that Israel might have no choice but to attack Iran.
Israel has carried out two air strikes against suspected nuclear sites in the past 30 years.
In 1981 its jets conducted a raid against Iraq's nuclear plant at Osirak, and in September 2007 it bombed a structure in Syria that was believed to have housed a nuclear reactor.
However, any attack against Iran would be a much more complicated military exercise, with Iran's uranium enrichment facilities spread across numerous sites.
Iran's comparatively sophisticated military, and its distance from Israel could present further complications for Israeli military planners, and risk setting off a full-scale war.
Mr Gillerman warned that the world could not afford to underestimate the seriousness of the Iranian threat.
"We have a very extreme, radical fundamentalist regime there with a President who denies the Holocaust while preparing the next one, and has vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the map," he said.
"My advice to the rest of the world is to listen to him very carefully and take him at face value and take him seriously.
"We all paid a huge price for not taking seriously the ranting of another small, moustached leader who some people considered as crazy, and I don't think we have the luxury to show the same indifference and apathy as we did before."
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