Haaretz
Tevet 17, 5767
Israel has drawn up secret plans
to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear
weapons, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said.
Citing what it said
were several Israel Defense Forces sources, the paper said two Israel Air
Force squadrons had been training to blow up an enrichment plant in Natanz
using low-yield nuclear "bunker busters".
Two other sites, a heavy
water plant at Arak and a uranium conversion plant at Isfahan, would be
targeted with conventional bombs, the Sunday Times said.
The United
Nations Security Council voted unanimously last month to slap sanctions on
Iran to try to stop uranium enrichment that Western powers fear could lead
to making bombs. Tehran insists its plans are peaceful and says it will
continue enrichment.
Israel has refused to rule out pre-emptive
military action against Iran along the lines of its 1981 air strike
against an atomic reactor in Iraq, though many analysts believe Iran's
nuclear facilities are too much for Israel to take on alone.
The
newspaper said the Israeli plan envisaged conventional laser-guided bombs
opening "tunnels" into the targets. Nuclear warheads would then be used
fired into the plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce
radioactive fallout.
Israeli pilots have flown to Gibraltar in
recent weeks to train for the 2,000 mile round-trip to the Iranian
targets, the Sunday Times said, and three possible routes to Iran have
been mapped out including one over Turkey.
However it also quoted
sources as saying a nuclear strike would only be used if a conventional
attack was ruled out and if the United States declined to intervene.
Disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to
halt enrichment, the paper added.
Washington has said military
force remains an option while insisting that its priority is to reach a
diplomatic solution.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has
called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." Israel, widely believed to
have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, has said it will not allow
Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.
Saudi Arabia, France urge Iran
to comply with nuclear demands
Meanwhile, the Saudi and French
foreign ministers called on Iran to accept international demands on
halting its uranium enrichment program, saying Saturday that the Mideast
should be free of weapons of mass destruction.
Visiting French
Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and his Saudi
counterpart
stressed that diplomacy must be the way to solve Iran's ongoing standoff
with the West over its nuclear program.
"We discussed the nuclear
dossier in the region and its hazards," Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi
foreign minister, said in a joint press conference.
"We agreed on
the necessity that the region should be void of weapons of mass
destruction and that achieving this target will be by dialogue and
diplomacy," he said.
"Israel should not be excluded from the
international efforts and procedures," he added, reflecting regional
demands that Israel also be scrutinized for its nuclear
program.
The foreign ministers' call came as Iran recently stated
it would continue to defy international sanctions aimed at rolling back
its uranium enrichment program.
"Iran has to respond to
international demands regarding this issue, and should have a positive
stance," Douste-Blazy was quoted as saying by the state-run Saudi Press
Agency.
Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful, but the United
States and Europe fear Iran is trying to develop an atomic
bomb.
Arab states near Iran are concerned nuclear accidents could
endanger their citizens or environment, and fear a possible military
confrontation between the Islamic regime and the United States or with
Israel. Gulf nations hosting U.S. military bases - Kuwait, Bahrain and
Qatar - also fear Iran could retaliate against them.
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