Diplomats Expect Iran Attack by End of Year
High-level British government officials believe that Israel will launch a military attack on Iranian nuclear sites within two months. Sources in the British government say that there is a consensus understanding that Israel will try to damage or destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities with American logistical support, according to a report in the British newspaper Daily Mail.
A senior source in the British Foreign Office divulged that government ministers were informed of the assessment that an Israeli attack on Iran, to try to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, could come ‘sooner rather than later,’ saying, “We’re expecting something as early as Christmas, or very early in the new year.”
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that a report released Tuesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency ‘completely discredits’ Iran’s contentions that its nuclear facilities are only developing energy for peaceful purposes. The IAEA report concluded that Iran is in fact developing the components necessary to build nuclear missiles.
The report, which was handed over to the 35-member states of the IAEA Board of Governors, details a series of tests, acquisition of materials, and technology that suggests Iran has continuously worked to produce a nuclear weapon since 2003.
Tehran’s history of hiding sensitive nuclear activity from the IAEA, continued restrictions on IAEA access and its refusal to suspend enrichment – which can yield fuel for atom bombs – have drawn four rounds of UN sanctions, as well as separate punitive steps by the United States and European Union.
Hague added that the U.K. would advocate to increase economic sanctions on Iran at an upcoming meetings of an IAEA committee.
For more, go to Haaretz.com
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