ISRAEL has drawn up
secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with
tactical nuclear weapons.
Two Israeli air
force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using
low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli
military sources.
The attack would be
the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States
dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons
would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima
bomb.
Under the plans,
conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets.
“Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz,
exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout.
“As soon as the
green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the
Iranian nuclear project will be demolished,” said one of the sources.
The plans,
disclosed to The Sunday Times last week, have been prompted in part by
the Israeli intelligence service Mossad’s assessment that Iran is on
the verge of producing enough enriched uranium to make nuclear weapons
within two years.
Israeli military
commanders believe conventional strikes may no longer be enough to
annihilate increasingly well-defended enrichment facilities. Several
have been built beneath at least 70ft of concrete and rock. However,
the nuclear-tipped bunker-busters would be used only if a conventional
attack was ruled out and if the United States declined to intervene,
senior sources said.
Israeli and
American officials have met several times to consider military action.
Military analysts said the disclosure of the plans could be intended to
put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action
or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack.
Some analysts
warned that Iranian retaliation for such a strike could range from
disruption of oil supplies to the West to terrorist attacks against
Jewish targets around the world.
Israel has
identified three prime targets south of Tehran which are believed to be
involved in Iran’s nuclear programme:
Natanz, where
thousands of centrifuges are being installed for uranium enrichment
A uranium
conversion facility near Isfahan where, according to a statement by an
Iranian vice-president last week, 250 tons of gas for the enrichment
process have been stored in tunnels
A heavy
water reactor at Arak, which may in future produce enough plutonium for
a bomb
Israeli officials
believe that destroying all three sites would delay Iran’s nuclear
programme indefinitely and prevent them from having to live in fear of
a “second Holocaust”.
The Israeli
government has warned repeatedly that it will never allow nuclear
weapons to be made in Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has
declared that “Israel must be wiped off the map”.
Robert Gates, the
new US defence secretary, has described military action against Iran as
a “last resort”, leading Israeli officials to conclude that it will be
left to them to strike.
Israeli pilots
have flown to Gibraltar in recent weeks to train for the 2,000-mile
round trip to the Iranian targets. Three possible routes have been
mapped out, including one over Turkey.
Air force
squadrons based at Hatzerim in the Negev desert and Tel Nof, south of
Tel Aviv, have trained to use Israel’s tactical nuclear weapons on the
mission. The preparations have been overseen by Major General Eliezer
Shkedi, commander of the Israeli air force.
Sources close to
the Pentagon said the United States was highly unlikely to give
approval for tactical nuclear weapons to be used. One source said
Israel would have to seek approval “after the event”, as it did when it
crippled Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak with airstrikes in 1981.
Scientists have
calculated that although contamination from the bunker-busters could be
limited, tons of radioactive uranium compounds would be released.
The Israelis
believe that Iran’s retaliation would be constrained by fear of a
second strike if it were to launch its Shehab-3 ballistic missiles at
Israel.
However, American
experts warned of repercussions, including widespread protests that
could destabilise parts of the Islamic world friendly to the West.
Colonel Sam
Gardiner, a Pentagon adviser, said Iran could try to close the Strait
of Hormuz, the route for 20% of the world’s oil.
Some sources in
Washington said they doubted if Israel would have the nerve to attack
Iran. However, Dr Ephraim Sneh, the deputy Israeli defence minister,
said last month: “The time is approaching when Israel and the
international community will have to decide whether to take military
action against Iran.”
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