US INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS long doubted Israel’s estimates that Iran would have a nuclear bomb by 2010, saying
Iran has not produced the highly enriched uranium necessary for a nuclear weapon and has not decided to do so…
just three months ago. Now, however, United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency published a report, according to which Iran enriched 1,300 kg (2,866 pounds) of uranium, thus giving it the capability to build one nuclear weapon. While we are still at first dates of June, Iran probably has plenty of time to build the bomb, and – judging by 7,000 centrifuges it has (increase by 1,000 since February) – it might have just enough capability to build more than one by year’s end.
Why existence of such material casts doubt over Iran’s intentions, it cannot serve as proof of Iran actually building such weapons – now we can only wait and see.
If, however, Iran actually builds such a bomb – which might and might not be announced by Iran’s Ahmadinejad – the United States will have to greatly step up its efforts in order to keep Israel alive.
Barack Obama, though, pressures Israel into concessions to Palestinians, mistakenly connecting Israeli-Palestinian conflict with Iran’s power-hungry aspirations. While Ahmadinejad and Co. will certainly use the suffering of Palestinian people as pretext, his intentions are unlikely to have anything to do with them, as Iran kept its hands off Palestinians, not providing any help to the refugees, restraining itself to public speeches.
The Middle East Informer 