washingtonpost.com
Israel Warns of Iran Nuclear Plans

By GAVIN RABINOWITZ
The Associated Press
Monday, August 1, 2005; 7:33 PM



JERUSALEM -- Israeli officials expressed alarm Monday over Iran's decision
to resume uranium processing, warning that unless the international
community steps up pressure on the Islamic state, Iran will develop nuclear
weapons.

However, Israeli experts said the world, led by the U.S., should deal with
the problem.

Iran says its nuclear enrichment program is for peaceful purposes, but
Israel and the United States believe Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons.

"If the Americans, Europeans and Russians will not take Iran to the (U.N.)
Security Council and put real pressure on them, they will produce nuclear
capabilities," said Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the parliamentary Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee.

Israel has repeatedly warned that Iran, which already posses the Shahab-3
missile _ a weapon capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching
Europe, Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East _ is a threat to the
Jewish state.

"There is a growing understanding in the international community that the
Iranian nuclear program is not benign," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark
Regev.

Despite the mounting concern over the resumption of uranium processing and
the recent election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a hard-liner, as Iran's
president, officials said that Israel was relying on the international
community, in particular the U.S., to stop Iran.

"Israel has already said that its policy today is to leave the stage to the
international players, the United States and Europe," said Efraim Halevy,
the former head of Israel's Mossad spy agency. "I think Israel is acting
wisely."

Officials questioned Israel's ability to destroy Iran's nuclear
installations. Israeli warplanes bombed the unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor
at Osirak near Baghdad in 1981. They said Iran's nuclear installations,
unlike the Iraqi reactor, are dispersed throughout the country _ many in
populated areas, with sophisticated defense systems.

"I believe this is beyond our abilities," said Uzi Even, a former lawmaker
and a Tel Aviv University expert on nuclear weapons.

Iran should fear the U.S., not Israel, Steinitz said. "The Americans have
proven their ability to strike many sites simultaneously."