Israeli Army Chief of Staff said Israel must be ready to strike Iran to stop nuclear weapons 0202122

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Defense News - Israel
 
 
Thursday, February 2, 2012, 10:19 AM
 
Israeli Army Chief of Staff said Israel must be ready to strike Iran to stop nuclear weapons program.
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz said his country must build up its military capabilities and be prepared to strike if economic sanctions fail to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Israel must be “willing to deploy” its military assets because Iran may be within a year of gaining nuclear weapons capability, Gantz said, February 1, 2012.
     
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz said his country must build up its military capabilities and be prepared to strike if economic sanctions fail to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Israel must be “willing to deploy” its military assets because Iran may be within a year of gaining nuclear weapons capability, Gantz said, February 1, 2012.
The Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, at a military drill conducted by the "Barak" Battalion of the Golani Brigade in northern Israel. (Archive image)
     

Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency wrapped up a round of talks this week aimed at resolving Western suspicions that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear-bomb capability, and officials said they planned further discussions.

“There is no doubt that Iran is striving for a bomb,” Gantz said in an address to the annual Herzliya Conference at the Interdisciplinary Center academic campus north of Tel Aviv. Its activities “must be disrupted,” he said.

U.S. intelligence agencies think Iran is developing capabilities to produce nuclear weapons “should it chose to do so,” James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee Jan. 31.

“We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons,” he said.

In Washington, a policy group called for providing Israel with additional bunker-buster bombs to increase pressure on Iran not to go nuclear.

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Security Project called yesterday for providing Israel with 200 GBU-31 bombs and two or three KC-135 aerial refueling tankers. Israel has a different variant of the bunker buster and about a dozen aerial tankers, which would be needed to enable Israeli warplanes to strike targets in Iran, according to a report by the group.