23.07.2004, 09:14
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Zitat:Force would not stop any Iran nuke plans-experts
VIENNA, July 22 (Reuters) - A military strike on Iranian atomic facilities would delay but not destroy the development of any nuclear weapons programme, diplomats and analysts said.
"Military action is not the answer," said a senior international diplomat involved in the investigation of Iran's nuclear plans.
"It would only push them underground, like in Iraq," said the diplomat, who declined to be named. Israel has hinted it could use airstrikes to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, which it and Washington believe are part of an attempt to acquire atomic weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear power programme.
But Iran denies the charge and Iranian Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani said his country would respond to a military attack "with everything in our power".
Convinced that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons, Israel bombed Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor in 1981. But instead of stopping his quest for a bomb, Saddam went underground and worked in secret until the programme was uncovered by the U.N. nuclear watchdog in 1991.
Several analysts and diplomats said Iran had learnt from Iraq's experience and might be hiding nuclear sites from U.N. inspectors, who have been probing Tehran's atomic programme for nearly two years to verify that it is peaceful as Iran insists.
"I think it's impossible to take out Iran's nuclear weapons programme with military strikes," a defence industry expert, who declined to be named, told Reuters. "They can recuperate."
SMOKING OUT SECRETS
But Gary Samore, director of studies at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London and a former adviser to U.S. ex-President Bill Clinton, said military action could significantly delay any Iranian atomic weapons programme.
"Military action could delay the development of nuclear weapons, assuming they know the right sites. It could buy them a considerable amount of time," Samore said. "At least part of Iran's clandestine programme is now public. The question is whether there are parts we don't know about yet."
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