The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today told a German weekly that a rain of missiles could degrade Iran’s nuclear program and set it back years. Olmert told the magazine Focus that the strike might not destroy all of the Iranian facilities, but it would damage the program in a way “it would be set back several years.”
Olmert said that the strike would require 10 days and the launch of a thousand Tomahawk missiles.
Olmert said Israel can not exclude military action against Iran if the Islamic Republic continued to defy UN resolutions calling for a halt of its uranium enrichment program.
The Chairman of Majlis’s Foreign Affairs Commission, Alladin Borojerdy, immediately voiced the Iranian government reaction to Olmert’s remarks by saying that the United States and Israel know what the “consequences will be for themselves.”
Meanwhile, the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana yesterday called for the US to open a channel of communication with Iran on all outstanding issues. Solana and Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani held talks in Ankara on Wednesday and Thursday. The reports indicate that a modified “double suspension” compromise on Iran’s enrichment program is being fine-tuned by the two sides.
Today’s comments by the Israeli premier, however, indicate how tense the situation remains on the ground.
