By Joel C. Rosenberg
JoelRosenberg.com
Evidence continues to mount that Israeli leaders are seriously contemplating a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, possibly within days or weeks. Now Israelis are accelerating their preparations for war. The country has a new Minister of Home Front Security.
Iran Making Progress on Its Nuclear Program
Meanwhile, Israeli citizens are standing in long lines to get gas masks for themselves and their children, concerned as much about the implosion of Syria and the possible use of Syria’s stockpiles of chemical weapons as about Iran’s nuclear threat.
(Times of Israel)—The world has received yet more proof that Iran is "continuing to make accelerated progress toward achieving nuclear weapons," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday in a meeting with US Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) during the latter’s tour of the Middle East.
Netanyahu spoke in response to a New York Times report warning that nuclear inspectors would soon report that Iran has installed "hundreds of new centrifuges in recent months" and may be ramping up nuclear fuel production. He said that Iran was making progress on its nuclear program "while totally ignoring international demands."
Officials from the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were meeting Iranian officials in Vienna Friday in hopes of a breakthrough on gaining access to nuclear sites—in particular, the Parchin military complex southeast of Tehran that they suspect was used for nuclear-weapons-linked experiments.
On Thursday, diplomats in Vienna told Reuters that Iran had increased uranium enrichment activities at the Fordo facility, a key nuclear site buried deep underground.
While Netanyahu warned once more that Iran was proceeding undeterred by international efforts to halt its nuclear program, the former chief of the General Staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, said Thursday that there is no reason for Israel to unleash a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities at this time.
- IAEA, Iran fail to reach deal at nuclear talks in Vienna • Haaretz
- US, UK, French elite units on standby for seizing Syrian chemical weapons • DEBKAfile
- US sending aircraft carrier back to Persian Gulf four months early • Times of Israel
- PM: Iran accelerating nuclear work • Ynet News
- Gantz: Israel is Ready for Any Scenario • Arutz Sheva
