Israel: Air strike on Iran will succeed

(PressTV-Ir-June 28, 2008)

A former senior Israeli general claims the regime is capable of carrying out a 'successful' air strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

"We could do it today," said Isaac Ben-Israel, a former air force general, in an interview with Der Spiegel published Saturday. Ben-Israel added that the only factor stopping Tel Aviv from launching the strike was the prospect of stopping Iran's nuclear program through other means. Washington, Tel Aviv and their European allies accuse Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program and demand the country abandon its uranium enrichment. Iran, however, insists its nuclear activities are aimed at providing fuel for its under-construction power plants.

Meanwhile, the latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran concluded after some 240 inspections of the country's nuclear sites that there is no link between the use of nuclear material and the alleged studies of weaponization.

"Only once the critical point has been reached will we choose the final option," continued the former general, who is currently a member of the Israeli parliament from prime minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima Party. Ben-Israel, who reportedly helped plan the 1981 air raid on Iraq's 'nuclear reactor, said that hitting Iran's scattered nuclear facilities would be 'more difficult'. He also acknowledged that the Israeli air force had recently conducted a maneuver over the Mediterranean to simulate a raid on Iran. "It was not the first such exercise, and it won't be the last," Ben-Israel said.

A recent New York Times report quoted Pentagon officials as saying that Israel orchestrated a military maneuver in early June as a rehearsal for a potential strike on Iran's nuclear sites. Pundits believe the military charade to have been less a dry run for an attack on Iran than a message that Tehran must curb its nuclear plans. Iran rejected the report as 'psychological warfare' but warned that any attack on the country would trigger a 'devastating response'. IRGC commander Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari warned Saturday that Israel is within 'the range of Iran's missiles' and that the regime despite all its abilities would not be able to confront the Islamic Republic.

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