The Editor
An article that appeared this weekend on the Fox News website has raised a few eyebrows. Originally produced by the London Times, the article suggests that Saudi Arabia, with the knowledge of the US State Department, has made arrangements for a channel of airspace above its territory to be used by Israel, should it choose to strike against Iran. A former head of Israeli military intelligence head stated: “I know that Saudi Arabia is even more afraid than Israel of an Iranian nuclear capacity.” Iran has defied all attempts to rein in its attempts to develop a nuclear weapon. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly lied, maintaining that his country needs to enrich uranium to fuel nuclear power plants for civilian use. Iran has 20 nuclear sites located around its territory (see map) but it only has one nuclear power plant which is close to being completed. The power plant at Bushehr (Bushehr 1) is said to be ready to go online this year, to provide electricity for domestic usage. There are three other nuclear power plants under construction at Bushehr.
On April 11, 2006, Ahmadinejad announced that his country had joined the “nuclear club” by making its first batch of enriched uranium. The words had meaning. The Bushehr reactor had been under construction long before Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005, and so already Iran had the potential to have nuclear power. The fact that he mentioned the term “club” was a direct reference to the nations that possessed nuclear weaponry. On January 20, 2008, the fourth consignment of nuclear fuel from Russia arrived in Bushehr, but there seemed to be little commitment to create power for civilian use.
In April 2008, Ahmadinejad announced that it had begun installation of 6,000 new centrifuges into its main nuclear plant at Natanz. In April this year, the head of Iran’s nuclear program, Ali Akbar Salehi, announced that it had tested its third generation of centrifuges. Just over a week ago, it was revealed that Iran was smuggling in nuclear equipment via Dubai.
With all its nuclear plants, and plans to enrich uranium, the fact that Iran still has not managed to get a single civilian power plant online, shows that the Islamist government is more concerned to develop a nuclear weapon than meet its citizens’ fuel needs. After Ahmadinejad’s claims in the fall of 2005 that he intended to “wipe Israel off the map”, Israel has a right to be worried.
The article from the Times suggests that the potential targets for any Israeli strike would be
“the uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Qom, the gas storage development at Isfahan and the heavy-water reactor at Arak. Secondary targets include the lightwater reactor at Bushehr, which could produce weapons-grade plutonium when complete.”
The map shows that most of these targets, apart from Bushehr, are far inland, to the north of Iran. An airstrike could lead to jets being shot down. If Bushehr were hit, with its Russian technicians helping to get the plant running, there could be a major diplomatic crisis.
Israel must be able to defend itself, and it knows that Iran is capable of using its nuclear weaponry against Israel. Ahmadinejad has sneered at the latest sanctions, and it is unlikely that any blockade will stop its progress. Israel has been vilified recently, and such vilification will be as nothing to the opprobrium it will face should it attack a Muslim country.
But Israel has no choice. Ahmadinejad is known to be a follower ofAyatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, a hardline hater of America and all things Western. Mesbah-Yazdi was a leading figure in the bizarre “Hojjatieh” society. This group, founded in 1953, had officially been banned by Khomeini four years after the revolution, but its influence remains, particularly near Qom.
The city of Qom, near which there are nuclear plants that could feature in an attack by Israel, is also a holy city, regarded as the place where the 12th Imam is hiding. The 12th Imam is important to the Shia “Twelvers” and particularly to the Hojjatieh Society.
According to tradition, the 12th Imam of the Shias, Abul-Qassem Mohammad, disappeared from the earth in 941 AD. He entered his “grand occultation” where he is hidden from view, awaiting his return to lead a final period of prosperity. The 12th Imam is said to be living down a well in Qom where his followers drop letters to him.
According to Amir Taheri, the 12th imam still governs the world, and in each generation sets up 30 people called “owtad”or “nails” who are said to fasten the universe together.
But the views of the Hojjatieh society are those which should truly terrify people, considering a leader of this group has such influence over Ahmadinejad. Mesbah-Yazdi issued a fatwa in 2005 to urge people to vote for Ahmadinejad. The manner in which the 12th Imam can be made to return involves the world being plunged into chaos.
From the start of his first term as President, Ahmadinejad has been busy creating chaos. He has been funding Hamas, Hizbollah, and also Shia insurgents in Iraq. He has openly called for the destruction of Israel, and apparently has worked with Syria and North Korea on long-distance missile capability.
An attack upon Iran’s installations which are dedicated to creating an Iranian nuclear bomb would cause further chaos. But this would be as nothing compared to the global chaos that would ensue if Ahmadinejad succeeds in hitting Israel with a nuclear weapon.
The Editor
No comments:
Post a Comment