Israel 'considering military strike against Iran' with just hours before deadline for nuclear power deal between Tehran and world leaders expires
- UN Security Council and Germany (P5+1) in talks with Iran for months
- Deadline for reaching agreement expires at midnight (2300GMT) today
- Deal is aimed at easing fears Iran will develop a nuclear weapons program
- Under deal, Iran will have to agree to inspections of all its sites for 10 years
- But Israel says nothing stopping Iran from building nuclear arsenal after
- Source tells Jerusalem Post unilateral preemptive strike is on the table
- 'People have underestimated Israel many times... and underestimate it now'
With time running out for the biggest chance in years to resolve the Iranian nuclear standoff, Israel has warned it is considering a military strike against the hermit nation should a deal satisfactory to all parties not be reached.
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (the P5+1) have been locked in talks with Iran for months, seeking to turn an interim deal that expires at 2300 GMT on Monday into a lasting accord.
Such an agreement, after a 12-year standoff, is aimed at easing fears that Tehran will develop nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian activities, an ambition it hotly denies.
But Israel has branded the deal too weak, claiming it ultimately offers Iran carte blanche to expand its nuclear-weapons programme once its terms expire in a decade, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing Israeli government sources.
'Do not underestimate us': An Israeli Air Force F-16I jet fighter prepares to take off at the Ramon Air Force Base in the Negev Desert. An Israeli government source said the world 'underestimates' Israel's threats of military action against Iran
Deal-makers: The five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (the P5+1) have been locked in talks with Iran for months (From left, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, former EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier)
'Reflecting on the deal under discussion with on the eve of the deadline, Israel has issued a stark, public warning to its allies with a clear argument: Current proposals guarantee the perpetuation of a crisis, backing Israel into a corner from which military force against Iran provides the only logical exit,' the newspaper reported.
A government official told the paper Israel has no concrete way of guaranteeing - or even knowing - that Iran will stick to the terms of the agreement, which include allowing inspections of its program's entire supply chain, from the mining of raw material to the syphoning of that material to various nuclear facilities across Iran.
'We're serious': Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened the use of force against Iran several times since 2009, and even sought authorization from his cabinet in 2011
'Our intelligence agencies are not perfect,' an Israeli official said. 'We did not know for years about Natanz and Qom (both key Iranian nuclear sites). And inspection regimes are certainly not perfect. They weren't in the case in North Korea, and it isn't the case now – Iran's been giving the IAEA the run around for years about its past activities.'
It comes as a last-ditch diplomatic blitz in recent days involving US Secretary of State John Kerry and other foreign ministers to secure a deal appears to have failed to bridge the remaining major differences.
As a result, a senior US State Department official last night said for the first time that the powers and Iran were now discussing putting more time on the clock.
The official said it was 'only natural that just over 24 hours from the deadline we are discussing a range of options ... An extension is one of those options.'
And to Israel's chagrin, the mass dismantlement of Iran's nuclear infrastructure – including the destruction, and not the mere warehousing, of its parts - is not one of those options.
'Iran's not being asked to dismantle the nuclear infrastructure,' the Israeli official told the Post, having seen the proposal before the weekend. 'Right now what they're talking about is something very different. They're talking about Ayatollah Khamenei allowing the P5+1 to save face.'
He added: 'You've not dismantled the infrastructure, you've basically tried to put limits that you think are going to be monitored by inspectors and intelligence. And then after this period of time, Iran is basically free to do whatever it wants.'
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened the use of force against Iran several times since 2009 and three years ago even asked his cabinet to authorise such a strike. Iran's nuclear effort has expanded significantly since.
Protests: An Iranian student holds a placard to show a support for Iran's nuclear program in a gathering in front of the headquarters of
Iran's Atomic Energy Organization in Tehran, Iran, yesterday
'The prime minister is a very serious man who knows the serious responsibility that rests on his shoulders. He wouldn't say the statements that he made if he didn't mean them.'
'People have underestimated Israel many, many times in the past,' he continued, 'and they underestimate it now.'
And today, Netanyahu welcomed the likelihood that the deal could be put on ice in a bid to thrash out a solution to suit all concerned.
'No deal is better than a bad deal,' he said. 'The deal that Iran was pushing for was terrible. A deal would have left Iran with the ability to enrich uranium for an atom bomb while removing the sanctions.'
'The right deal that is needed is to dismantle Iran's capacity to make atomic bombs and only then dismantle the sanctions. Since that's not in the offing, this result is better, a lot better,' he said, in response to news the Vienna talks were likely to break off and resume next month.
It came after US Secretary of State John Kerry met his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif for the sixth time since Thursday in an attempt to break the deadlock.
'No Stop'': With a deadline approaching for a nuclear deal, an Iranian official said Sunday that the discussion may soon have to shift
from trying to reach an agreement to extending negotiations past the target date
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said however that the parties would still make a 'big push tomorrow (Monday) morning to try and get this across the line'.
'Of course if we're not able to do it, we'll then look at where we go from there,' he said.
'We're still quite a long way apart and there are some very tough and complex issues to deal with'.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was expected in the Austrian capital early Monday, completing the line-up of all the six powers' foreign ministers.
This included Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a key player in the talks. Earlier in the week he said all the elements were in place for a deal with just 'political will' missing.
Diplomats on both sides say that despite some progress, the two sides remain far apart on the two crucial points of contention: uranium enrichment and sanctions relief.
Enriching uranium renders it suitable for peaceful purposes like nuclear power but also, at high purities, for the fissile core of a nuclear weapon.
Tehran wants to massively ramp up the number of enrichment centrifuges -- in order, it says, to make fuel for future reactors -- while the West wants them dramatically reduced.
Iran wants painful UN and Western sanctions that have strangled its vital oil exports lifted, but the powers want to stagger any relief over a long period of time to ensure Iranian compliance with any deal.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2846845/Time-runs-Iran-nuclear-talks.html#ixzz3JzYOBYtj
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