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An Iranian woman, holds the Koran, during a rally at the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility, to support Iran's nuclear program. (AP)
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| By Associated Press December 11, 2005 |
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| A Feb. 12, 2005 satellite image of the Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) at Isfahan, Iran with tunnel entrances to the north of the facility. Iran may be placing its nuclear sites inside special tunnels because of threats of attack Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator said in an interview published Friday Feb. 25, 2005. Israel is expanding its war arsenal to deal with what it views as the greatest threat to its existence: a nuclear attack by Iran. (AP Photo/Digital Globe, File) |
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A senior Defense Ministry official said Sunday that Israel has not ruled out a military strike against Iran if the country advances further in its efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
Amos Gilad denied a Sunday Times article published on the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon already had a plan to attack Iran in March, saying Israel was working with the rest of the world to solve the matter with diplomatic means.
"Right now the situation requires the focus on the international issue of protecting the peace of world," Gilad told Israel Radio. "But it isn't correct to say that a country that is threatened should deny that it will ever consider a different option."
Israel considers Iran one of its top enemies.
According to the newspaper report, Israel has a plan for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if diplomacy fails to stop the nuclear program. Sharon's inner Cabinet authorized the attack in a meeting last month, the newspaper said.
Sharon said earlier this month that the ability to take out Iran's nuclear program by force "of course exists."
Although Israel is preparing for the possibility that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons, it won't lead the fight against the Islamic state's nuclear ambitions, Sharon said. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Sunday that "Israel can't live in a situation in which Iran has the atomic bomb."
Israeli warplanes destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, but experts say a similar strike would be difficult because of the dispersed nature of Iran's nuclear program.
The chairman of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval Steinitz, suggested that Israel knew where Iran was conducting its nuclear program.
"Israel has acted well in regards to intelligence and deployed accordingly," Steinitz told Army Radio. But he would not say if Israel should strike these areas to halt the Iranian program.
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