Iran Nearing Nuclear Self-sufficiency
October 21, 2003
The Associated Press
Jerusalem Post
Iran will be able to produce its own nuclear weapons without outside help within a year if it completes its uranium enrichment program, the head of Israeli military intelligence said Tuesday.
An Iranian security official said Tuesday that Iran would suspend uranium enrichment and allow spot checks of a nuclear program it insists is peaceful, but he did not say when the suspension would begin or how long it would last.
Israeli officials charge that Iran is covertly acquiring nuclear arms know-how, at least some of it from countries of the former Soviet Union.
The Israeli military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, told the Israeli parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Iran is definitely working toward nuclear arms capability and will soon no longer need to seek help abroad.
"By the summer of 2004, Iran will have reached the point of no return in its attempts to develop nuclear weapons," a parliamentary official quoted Zeevi-Farkash as telling the committee.
The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany met Iran's President Mohammad Khatami on Tuesday to press him to meet an Oct. 31 deadline set by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to prove Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom was to fly to Germany Tuesday evening for talks with German officials, during which he would restate Israel's concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions.
The United States strongly suspects Iran has a weapons program, and Washington has been lobbying fellow members of the IAEA board to declare the country in breach of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
If Iran fails to satisfy the IAEA, the U.N.-sponsored agency is expected to refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions.
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