Israel Update for April 2010

Energy Minister Dan Meridor told reporters that the expected criticism of Israel from Egypt and Turkey had not materialized at the summit. He added that Iran's nuclear programme instead featured quite prominently in private discussions that the international leaders engaged in, as Obama had earlier stated. Meridor said "the only game in town is Iran verses the US. Who wins, who loses. We need America and its allies to win, or else the world order changes." The Likud party politician added that the possibility the current world order will be seriously altered by Iran acquiring nuclear weapons capability "is a grievous development. It's not good."

An anonymous "senior American government official" gave similar statements to a Jerusalem Post reporter. "This conference, while clearly not being about Iran, demonstrates how isolated Iran actually is," he was quoted as saying, adding that it sends "a very clear message to countries like Iran that this is the future, this is the world order that everyone wants to see. They have had an opportunity to follow through with meeting their international obligations but have created considerable doubt about the peaceful intent of their nuclear programme and therefore are going to be facing increasing international pressure."

That pressure was highlighted one day before the Washington summit got started when President Obama issued a joint statement with Chinese President Hu Jintoa. The two leaders said they had agreed to work closely together to suggest a series of diplomatic and economic sanctions that the UN could adopt against Iran if it continues its nuclear defiance. Despite this, Hu Jintoa later stated that his increasingly powerful country prefers that diplomatic attempts to persuade Iran to drop its programme be given more time to succeed, instead of the immediate adoption of further UN sanctions against Tehran.

On the eve of the nuclear summit, visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned that Israel would feel compelled to take military action if the world does not quickly stop Iran from constructing nuclear weapons. He said a conflict between Israel and Iran would be "a disaster," adding that a nuclear-armed Iran was both "dangerous and unacceptable," especially given the "many statements made by Iranian leaders against the democracy that is Israel."

PM Netanyahu once again lamented what he perceives as a general lack of urgent concern by the world's leaders over what he solemnly termed as Iran's "genocidal plan against the Jewish people." Delivering a moving speech marking Israel's annual Holocaust Memorial Day, he said, "In the face of these repeated statements to wipe the Jewish State off the face of the earth...the world carries on as usual."

In his usual fashion, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blasted both the summit meeting and President Obama personally. And for the first time, a top Iranian official broadly hinted that the Shiite regime has more than just electric energy plants in its future nuclear plans. Behzad Solani, deputy director of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, boasted that "we do not intend to use the peaceful nuclear energy programme merely for generating electricity and energy." He added that the programme would eventually "boost Iran's political power in the international arena" which analysts note could only be a reference to a nuclear weapons capability.

Iran On The Brink

There were several other important developments during April concerning Iran's threatening nuclear programme. In its annual report to the American Congress, the US Central Intelligence Agency noted that "Iran continues to develop a range of capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons, if a decision is made to do so." The report added that Iranian scientists, with help from North Korea, China and Russia, have demonstrated "significant progress" in their attempts to build ever more powerful ballistic missiles. American media reports said much of the information the CIA based its latest assessment upon was garnered from a top Iranian nuclear scientist who defected to the United States last May.

Another annual report to Congress given later in April-this time by the Pentagon-predicted that Iran's increasingly long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles might be capable of landing nuclear warheads on America's eastern seaboard in just five years time. It noted that existing missiles can already reach much of Europe, along with all of the Middle East.

Demonstrating continuing contempt for world opinion and threats of further sanctions, Dr. Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, revealed his country would soon begin enriching uranium to "a level ten times greater than the first generation" produced by its massive centrifuge programme. This would make such uranium much closer in quality to that needed to produce nuclear warheads.

Meanwhile an Iranian official said during April that they had developed their own anti-aircraft missile batteries after Russia responded to pressure from the Bush administration and Israel to delay delivery of its promised S-300 sophisticated system. Iran said it had taken five years to complete the new system, which an Iranian general boasted was capable of "resisting electronic warfare" directed at Iran. He added the system would be deployed before the end of this year, which analysts said might give Israeli leaders an additional incentive to launch military strikes upon Iran's burgeoning nuclear and missile programmes before then.

The possibility of American military action against Iran was also in the news during the month. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that "all options are still on the table" when it comes to Iran's nuclear defiance. The Pentagon later reiterated that statement after one of Gates chief deputies maintained a military operation was off the table for the time being, being reserved as "an option of last resort." Seemingly echoing that position, America's senior military commander, Admiral Michael Mullen, told students at Columbia University that "I think Iran having a nuclear weapon would be incredibly destabilizing, but I think attacking them would also create the same kind of outcome."

Republican politicians charged that the seemingly conflicting statements confirmed growing indications that the Obama administration has no coherent policy regarding Iran. The same conclusion was reported by the New York Times, despite the fact that the newspaper has been overtly supportive of the Democratic Party President that it endorsed before the 2008 national election.

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