IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz said Tuesday that Iran
was approaching the point where it would have the technological
know-how to build nuclear weapons.
According to Halutz, it is possible that Iran would be able to
complete building a bomb as early as 2008 or as far as 2015.
Dec. 13, 2005 15:04 | Updated Dec. 13, 2005 19:41
Halutz: Iran could have bomb by 2008
By SHEERA CLAIRE FRENKEL AND AP
Talkbacks for this article: 35
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz said Tuesday that Iran was
approaching the point where it would have the technological
know-how to build nuclear weapons.
According to Halutz, it is possible that Iran would be able to
complete building a bomb as early as 2008 or as far as 2015.
Halutz spoke at the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense
Committee.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday
reiterated his doubt about the Holocaust and called on Muslim
nations to take a proactive stand on the Palestinian issue.
The president's comments, published Tuesday on Iranian state
television's Web site, were the second time in a week that he has
expressed doubt about the Nazi destruction of European Jewry during
the World War II. Ahmadinejad provoked an international outcry in
October when he called Israel a "disgraceful blot" that should be
"wiped off the map."
"If the killing of Jews in Europe is true," the Web site quoted
Ahmadinejad as saying, "and the Zionists are being supported
because of this excuse, why should the Palestinian nation pay the
price?"
The television did not broadcast Ahmadinejad's comments, and the
Web site offered no reason.
In Israel, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said: "The real
problem with the repeated statements of the Iranian president is
that they correctly represent the mind-set of the Iranian
leadership, and they accurately articulate the policies of that
extremist regime."
The president made the remarks Monday at an Islamic conference in
Teheran that was attended by Khaled Mashaal, Hamas's political
leader.
Later Monday, Ahmadinejad discussed the Palestinian issue with
Mashaal, the Web site reported.
"The Islamic world should give up its policy of passivity and deal
with the Palestinian issue more actively," Ahmadinejad said,
according to the Web site. He did not elaborate.
He said the West could not play a neutral role in the
Palestinian-Israeli issue.
"The West's policy has always been in favor of the Zionist regime
and to the detriment of the Islamic world. It can't be a judge or
mediator now," Ahmadinejad said.
Ahmadinejad provoked an angry reaction from Europe, the United
States and even Russia, an ally of Iran, on Thursday when he told
reporters in Saudi Arabia that Israel should be moved to Europe if
the West wanted to make up for the Holocaust. The comment also
infuriated the Saudis as it was made on the sidelines of a meeting
of the Organization of the Islamic Conference that was dedicated to
showing the moderate face of Islam.
Ahmadinejad's remarks have also provoked a reaction from his
conservative allies who fear that he is hurting the country's
image. Moderate Iranians have called on the ruling Islamic
establishment to rein in the president.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ultimate say
on all matters, has backed Ahmadinejad's calls for Israel's
elimination.
The controversy comes at a sensitive time for Iran, which is under
heavy international pressure over its nuclear program. The United
States is pressing the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer
Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
Washington accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons. Iran
denies this, saying its program is strictly for generating
electricity. But the IAEA says so far it has been unable to give
Iran's nuclear program a clean bill of health.
Iran's nuclear program
If nuclear bomb is completed, what will
going to happen to the world?
