9/23/2004 2:00:00 PM GMT
Iran has warned it will react "most severely" against any Israeli action targeting its nuclear facilities, after Israel announced that the United States was selling it 500 bunker buster bombs.
According to an Israeli military officer, Israel will receive nearly 5,000 smart bombs, including the 500 one-ton bombs that can destroy six-foot concrete walls.
When asked about the U.S. selling bombs to Israel, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told reporters: "Israel has always been a threat, not only against Iran, but all countries."
Kharrazi said that the core of the Middle East crisis is Israel's "freedom to produce as much as they need — nuclear bombs as well as other weapons of mass destruction."
"But be sure, any action by Israel certainly will be reacted (to) by us, most severely," Kharrazi said after he held talks with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly's ministerial meeting.
The U.S. sold Israel 500 bunker buster bombs after the International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a resolution last Saturday demanding Iran to freeze all uranium enrichment activities, including the building of centrifuges, within two months. If Iran didn’t comply with the resolution, the IAEA will pass Iran's nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Iran challenged the IAEA resolution by announcing on Tuesday that it will carry on with its nuclear program, even if it means ending cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog. Iran’s uranium enrichment program is merely for generating electricity and other peaceful purposes and not to produce nuclear weapons.
On Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom claimed that Iran was planning to develop nuclear weapons and will never stop those plans. He, moreover, urged the UN Security Council "to put an end to this nightmare."
Shalom sidestepped the question of whether Israel would take military action against Iran if it doesn’t stop its nuclear activities.
"They are trying to buy time, and the time has come to move the Iranian case to the Security Council in order to put an end to this nightmare," he said after his meeting with Secretary General Kofi Annan.
When asked about a possible Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, Secretary of State Colin Powell, said: "We're talking about diplomacy and political efforts to stop this movement on the part of the Iranians toward a nuclear weapon.
"We're not talking about strikes. But every option always, of course, remains on the table."
Kharrazi insisted "there are ways and means to arrive at a compromise" referring to the IAEA demand that Iran freezes all its uranium enrichment activities.
According to the Israeli military officials, besides the 500 one-ton bombs in the arms sale, Israel will receive 2,500 one-ton bombs, 1,000 half-ton bombs and 500 quarter-ton bombs.
Israel's announcement of the sale came after the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency informed the Congress of a possible military sale to Israel worth as much as $319 million.
The agency said in a June 1 at a press release that the sale "will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that has been and continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East."
U.S. transfers high-tech arsenal to Israel
Amid growing concerns that Israel might attack Iran's nuclear facilities, the U.S. is moving ahead with transferring to Israel 5,000 heavy, precision-guided bombs, including 500 "earth-penetrating" 2,000-pound bombs designed for use against underground facilities.
The $319 million arms transfer, was proposed by the Bush administration in June 1.
The deal is being financed from this year's $2.16 billion military assistance grant to Israel.
The deal also includes transferring 2,500 2,000-pound Mark-84 bombs, 500 1,000-pound Mark-83 bombs, 1,500 500-pound Mark-82 bombs and live fuses. All the bombs are being fitted with the Joint Direct Air Munitions kit, which uses inertial guidance and beacons from U.S. military global positioning satellites for deadly accuracy.
"That's an arsenal for war," said Joseph Cirincione, senior associate for nonproliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. He said any attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, clustered in three major complexes and dozens of other sites, "wouldn't be a pinprick strike; it would have to be a large-scale military air strike that would result in large-scale casualties."