Israel “competent to deter its enemies”, official says

PanARMENIAN.Net - Israel is not indifferent to “direct and blunt” Iranian threats to its existence and is “competent to deter its enemies and to defend itself,” Shaul Chorev, head of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, said, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Chorev’s comments came at the annual meeting of the 155-nation International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, where he said that Iran’s sizable enrichment of uranium and construction of a heavy water research reactor for the military production of plutonium, as well as its design and testing of components of nuclear weapons and its activities to integrate a payload onto the Shahab 3 missile, left no doubt as to the goal of Tehran’s efforts.

“Iran’s nuclear activities are conducted in violation of all relevant UN Security Council and IAEA Board of Governors resolutions, and are carried out with impunity, as measures of the international community have no effect on Iran’s nuclear program,” he said.

Chorev added that Iranian fingerprints were all over Syria, where “the Syrian regime fights for its survival at a cost of tens of thousands of lives of innocent Syrian civilians.”

He also argued against Arab calls for a nuclear-free Middle East, saying the region had long been characterized by the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction by despotic regimes in violation of every legally binding international commitment and obligation.

“The concept of a region free of WMD that has never been put to test even in the most peaceful regions of the world is certainly much less applicable to the current volatile and hostile Middle East region,” he said. “Any attempt to reach this goal requires a significant transformation of regional trends and the creation of some elementary pre-conditions.”

Chorev listed three preconditions: First, that such a process be launched only when peaceful relations exist for a reasonable period of time; second, that the call for this zone come from within the region; and third, that it not be imposed from the outside.

Obviously, he said, these conditions do not presently exist.