The Glasgow Herald has reported that Israel may launch a preemptive strike against Iran as early as March.
A preemptive airstrike by Israel against suspected nuclear weapons facilities in Iran could come as early as March, a report in the Glasgow Herald claimed Tuesday.“The Israeli raids would be carried out by long-range F-15E bombers and cruise missiles against a dozen key sites and are designed to set Tehran’s weapons program back by up to two years,” the paper said.“Pilots at the Israeli air force’s elite 69 squadron have been briefed on the plan and have conducted rehearsals for their missions.”One of the primary targets would be the enrichment plant at Natanz – where Iranian scientists removed seals on Tuesday that had kept one of the country’s largest uranium stockpiles under wraps since 2004.According to an Iranian defector’s account published in the Australian on Wednesday, Tehran has 5,000 centrifuges ready to install at the Natanz facility.The same defector said Iran has also been building underground centrifuge cascade installation platforms at Natanz which could process enough enriched uranium to produce a nuclear bomb.Other nuclear sites said to be among Israel’s primary targets include a heavy-water production site at Arak, 120 miles southwest of Tehran, and a site near Isfahan in central Iran that produces uranium hexafluoride gas.Plans for a preemptive strike were accelerated, the Herald said, after Russia agreed last month to sell Tehran advanced SA-15 Gauntlet mobile missile systems with an eye towards foiling an Israeli attack.The paper quoted an unnamed Israeli source who warned: “We believe Iran will have useable nuclear weapons by 2007 unless something is done to prevent it. If Tehran is allowed to start enrichment of uranium, it will be too late.”
