Bolton: Obama won't strike Iranian nuclear reactor

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http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=185060

Bolton: Obama won't strike Iranian nuclear reactor

By DOV PREMINGER

08/17/2010 18:24

Former UN ambassador claims Israel has only 3 days to strike Bushehr plant

before fuel rods mean radioactive fallout; " that's what Israel did in Osirak,

Iraq in 1981. "

Former US ambassador to the UN Bolton said he didn't see " any signs

whatsoever that President Obama would make the necessary decision " to strike

Iran's nuclear reactor, speaking in an interview with Israel Radio Tuesday.

Bolton claimed Israel has only three days to strike before Russia " begins the

fueling process for the Bushehr reactor this Friday, " after which any attack

would cause radioactive fallout that could reach as far as the waters of the

Persian Gulf.

In an interview with Fox Business Network earlier Tuesday Bolton had said the

deadline was eight days, but he revised it to three in the Israel Radio

interview, saying Iran and Russia had announced they would begin fueling on

Friday.

" It has always been optimal that military force is used before the fuel rods are

inserted, " Bolton explained. " That's what Israel did in Osirak in 1991, and when

they attacked the North Korean reactor built in Syria. " Israel bombed the Osirak

nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981, and a Syrian reactor in 2007.

However Bolton didn't see any indication that an Israeli strike was going to

happen. " Obviously if Israel were going to do something it wouldn't exactly be

advertising it. But time is short. "

Bolton said that it would be " a much more dangerous world " if Iran were to gain

nuclear capability. " That's why I think it's so critical. It won't stop with

Iran. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, perhaps other states as well. "

Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said earlier Tuesday that an attack on

Iranian nuclear facilities would be an " international crime. "

In an interview with IRNA, Salehi said that the impact of such a strike would be

global. " This is stipulated in the resolutions passed by the IAEA and the UN

Security Council as well as in the resolution adopted at the close of the NPT

Review Conference, " he stressed.

Russia, who is supplying the uranium fuel for the plant, announced last week

that they will begin loading the Bushehr reactor on August 21.

In an initial interview earlier today with Fox Business Network earlier Tuesday,

Bolton warned that once the Bushehr facility is operational it will be too late

for a military air strike against Iran because such an attack would spread

radiation and harm Iranian civilians.

" Once that uranium, once those fuel rods are very close to the reactor,

certainly once they're in the reactor, attacking it means a release of

radiation, no question about it, " Bolton said.

" Iran will achieve something that no other opponent of Israel, no other enemy of

the United States in the Middle East really has and that is a functioning

nuclear reactor. "

Bolton was critical of Russia for aiding Iran in the fueling of the nuclear

reactor.

" The Russians are, as they often do, playing both sides against the middle. The

idea of being able to stick a thumb in America's eye always figures prominently

in Moscow, " Bolton concluded.