(Israel Hayom) Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror - The U.S. changed its policy mid-negotiations, going from demanding that Iran be stripped of its nuclear weapons production capabilities, to discussing the nature of the limitations and supervision placed on these capabilities. The framework deal clearly indicates that the U.S. has come to accept that Iran will one day possess military nuclear capabilities. The hope that the agreement will somehow breed a positive process in Iran has no hold in reality. In fact, there is no debate within the Iranian leadership on whether or not such capabilities are necessary, only about the best way to go about achieving them. The argument that any military strike would result in only a short-term setback in Iran's nuclear endeavors is wrong because it fails to account for the effect a successful strike would have on Tehran's willingness to invest in rehabilitating a program that could be destroyed in a matter of several nights, which is how long the U.S. said it would take to strike all of Iran's nuclear facilities. I believe that Iran would not rush to resuscitate its nuclear program in the event it was destroyed by the U.S. It also stands to reason that Iran's actual ability to retaliate over such a strike, other than by putting Hizbullah in play, would be limited. The U.S. can forcibly bring the Iranian nuclear program to a halt, it simply chooses not to do so. The writer, former Israeli National Security Advisor and head of the National Security Council, served 36 years in senior IDF posts.
2015-04-20 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive