Iran’s nuclear facilities vulnerable - Israeli vice PM

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran's suspected nuclear weapons installations are vulnerable to possible military strikes, Israel's vice premier warned Thursday, February 2 suggesting that underground bunkers don't offer sufficient protection, Fox News reported.

The comments by Moshe Yaalon contradicted an assessment shared by foreign experts and Israeli defense officials that it would be difficult to strike sensitive Iranian nuclear targets, as they are being built underground.

Yaalon, a former military chief of staff, suggested Thursday that forces guarding the nuclear installations could be targeted. Referring to the debate over bunker-buster bombs, he said that "at the end of the day it's possible to strike all the installations."

At an academic conference, Yaalon and Israel's chief of military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, presented details about Iran's weapons programs.

Yaalon said Iran is trying to develop missiles that could target the United States with a range of 6,250 miles. The vice premier said this was discovered in the aftermath of a mysterious explosion several months ago at what he described as a missile research and development site in Iran. The cause of the blast remains unknown, and Yaalon did not elaborate.

Iran insists the blast was accidental, but speculation over sabotage remains strong. The remarks by Yaalon appeared to be the first public suggestion that the missile site was the scene of highly advanced projects and could boost suspicions that outside forces played a role in the explosion.

Kochavi told the conference that Iran has already produced enough enriched uranium to eventually make four nuclear bombs. Such material would serve as the basis for further enrichment, up to weapons grade.

Israeli media quoted Kochavi as saying that once Iran moves into the so-called "breakout stage" and decides to produce weapons grade uranium, it would need about a year to make a rudimentary bomb and an additional year or two to craft a nuclear warhead.