Israel ready to attack Iran

Iran has been saying for years that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful, energy-making purposes. But the country has been singled out for repeated sanctions based solely on loud and unsubstantiated suspicions from Western governments that they are building nuclear weapons. Recently, a US National Intelligence Estimate backed up Iran's innocence, reporting that there is no current evidence that Iran has any type of nuclear weapons-making program. Nevertheless, the accusations, mostly from the US and Israel, have continued unabated. On June 6, these charges took on a fresh immediacy when a senior member of the Israeli government said an attack on Iran is becoming "unavoidable." The blunt warning that Israel's government is ready to strike at Iran was given by Shaul Mofaz, transport minister and a deputy prime minister, in a newspaper interview published on June 6. "If Iran continues its nuclear weapons program, we will attack it," said Mofaz. "Other options are disappearing. The sanctions are not effective. There will be no alternative but to attack Iran in order to stop the Iranian nuclear program," Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot daily. He stressed such an operation could only be conducted with US support. In response, Iran demanded action from the UN Security Council about the Israeli threat to attack if it continues uranium enrichment. "Such a dangerous threat against a sovereign state and a member of the United Nations constitutes a manifest violation of international law and contravenes the most fundamental principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and, thus, requires a resolute and clear response on the part of the United Nations, particularly the Security Council," said a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon by Iranian UN Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee. Mofaz's threat against Iran was the most explicit from a member of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government, which has preferred to hint at a possible use of force. Khazaee's letter said the Security Council's history of failing to act against Israel "has emboldened it to continue and even increase its unlawful behaviors and policies." Israel is believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal. Khazaee said that "poses the most immediate and serious threat that the world and the region are facing."