Iran will be able to produce a first core for a nuclear bomb in about one year’s time, according to Dr. Efraim Askolai, a former member of the Israeli Atomic Energy Committee. Askolai’s estimate jibes with similar ones made recently by US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and correlates with an estimate by his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Barak.
Speaking at the Center for Strategic Dialog at the Netanya Academic College, Askolai said that Iran will be able to produce up to five nuclear bombs at first. For this, it will utilize the secret plant it built near Qom, which he described as “a smoking gun” that proved its intentions to produce a weapon.
He estimated that Iran wants to reach a point where it can produce a bomb at short notice. It will then be able to enrich uranium to a 90% level in a short time, and carry out a nuclear explosion.
Right now, Tehran wants to buy time, he added.
The sanctions that have been applied to Iran cannot delay Iran’s nuclear program, the expert said. A boycott of Iranian oil and sanctions that paralyze it financially could have done that, he said.
Read more: Israel National News
{Israel National News/Matzav.com Newscenter}
Hmm…it’ll be very “enlightening” if they experience an “accident” while assembling the nukes.
The difference between Obama and most of those vying to run against him is that the GOP candidates know that economic fallout from oil and financial sanctions, however difficult, are not nearly as bad as nuclear fallout from an Iranian bomb.
if arutz sheva is going to pretend they are a news organization they ought to check their voaculary list before they let an article slip through. The word is jives not jibes.