Israel has plans for nuclear strike on Iran: Report

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

London, Jan 7: Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroyIran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons,Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said.

Citing what it said were several Israeli military sources, thepaper said two Israeli air force squadrons had been training to blow upan enrichment plant in Natanz using low-yield nuclear ''bunkerbusters''.

Two other sites, a heavy water plant at Arak and a uraniumconversion plant at Isfahan, would be targeted with conventional bombs,the Sunday Times said.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously last month to slapsanctions on Iran to try to stop uranium enrichment that Western powersfear could lead to making bombs. Tehran insists its plans are peacefuland says it will continue enrichment.

Israel has refused to rule out pre-emptive military action againstIran along the lines of its 1981 air strike against an atomic reactorin Iraq, though many analysts believe Iran's nuclear facilities are toomuch for Israel to take on alone.

The newspaper said the Israeli plan envisaged conventionallaser-guided bombs opening ''tunnels'' into the targets. Nuclearwarheads would then be used fired into the plant at Natanz, explodingdeep underground to reduce radioactive fallout.

Israeli pilots have flown to Gibraltar in recent weeks to trainfor the 3,200 km round-trip to the Iranian targets, the Sunday Timessaid, and three possible routes to Iran have been mapped out includingone over Turkey.

However it also quoted sources as saying a nuclear strike wouldonly be used if a conventional attack was ruled out and if the UnitedStates declined to intervene. Disclosure of the plans could be intendedto 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 West Asia'sonly nuclear arsenal, has said it will not allow Iran to acquirenuclear weapons.


Reuters>

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