U.S. BOLTON SAYS RUSSIA'S FUEL TO REACTOR LEAVES AUG 21 DEADLINE TO ATTACK THAT PLANT
AUG 15 2010
News that Russia will load nuclear fuel rods into an Iranian
reactor has touched off a countdown to a point of no return,
a deadline by which Israel would have to launch an
attack on Iran's Bushehr reactor before it becomes effectively "immune" to any
assault, says former Bush administration U.N. Ambassador John R.
Bolton.
Once the fuel rods are loaded, Bolton told Fox News on Friday afternoon, "it
makes it essentially immune from attack by Israel. Because once the rods are
in the reactor an attack on the reactor risks spreading
radiation in the air, and perhaps into the water of the Persian Gulf."
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared in March that Russia would
start the Bushehr reactor this summer. But the announcement from a spokesman
for Russia's state atomic agency to Reuters Friday sent international
diplomats scrambling to head off a crisis.
The story immediately became front-page news in Israel,
which has laid precise plans to carry out an attack on Iran's nuclear
facilities while going along with President Obama's plans to use
international sanctions and diplomatic persuasion to convince Iran's clerics
not to go nuclear.
Bolton made it clear that it is widely assumed that any Israeli attack on the
Bushehr reactor must take place before the reactor is loaded with fuel rods.
"If they're going to do it that's the window that they have," Bolton declared.
"Otherwise as I said before, once the rods are in the reactor,
if you attack the reactor you're going to open it up and
radiation will escape at least into the
atmosphere and possibly into the waters of the Persian
Gulf.
"So most people think that neither Israel nor the United States, come to that,
would attack the reactor after it's been fueled."
Bolton cited the 1981 Israeli attack on Saddam Hussein's Osirak reactor
outside Baghdad and the September 2007 Israeli attack on a North Korean
reactor being built in Syria. Both of those strikes came before fuel rods were
loaded into those reactors.
"So if it's going to happen in Bushehr it has to happen
before the fuel rods go in," Bolton said.
The conversation that touched off the de facto deadline for Israeli military
action was a telephone conversation with wire services involving Sergei
Novikov, a spokesman for Rosatom, the Russian Energy State Nuclear Corp.
Novikov said: "The fuel will be loaded on Aug 21.
This is the start of the physical launch” of the reactor.
"From that moment the Bushehr plant will be officially considered a
nuclear-energy installation," Novikov said, adding that the head of Rosatom,
Sergei Kiriyenko, will visit Bushehr Aug. 21 to conduct a ceremony for the
event.
According to Bolton, once the reactor is operational, it is only a matter of
time before it begins producing plutonium that could be used in a nuclear
weapon.
"And in the normal operation of this reactor, in just a fairly short period of
time, you could get substantial amounts of plutonium to use as nuclear
weapons," Bolton told Fox.
Russia, which is operating under a $1 billion contract with Iran, has spent
more than a decade building the reactor. If Russia moves forward with its plan
to fuel the reactor, it could be seen as a major setback to the Obama
administration's strategy of engaging Russian leaders in order to win their
cooperation.
"The U.S. urged them not to send the Iranian's fuel rods," Bolton said. "They
did that. The Obama administration has urged them not to insert the fuel rods
in the reactors, but as they've just announced that will
begin next week. What that does over time is help Iran get another
route to nuclear weapons through the plutonium they could reprocess out of the
spent fuel rods."
The developments mean Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu soon may face
a stark choice: Attack the Bushehr reactor in the next 8
days, or allow it to become operational despite the certainty it would
greatly enhance Iran's ability to create nuclear weapons.
Russian leaders have said the Bushehr reactor project is being closely
monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear
watchdog group. According to Iran's ISNA news agency, IAEA inspectors will be
on hand to observe the fuel-rod loading process that is
now scheduled to begin Aug. 21.
According to Russian officials, Iran has promised in writing to send all spent
fuel rods from Bushehr back to Russia for reprocessing, to ensure they cannot
be used for nuclear weapons.
Bolton said the reactor has been "a hole" in American foreign policy for over
a decade.
The failure to demand it be shut down began in the Bush years, he said, and
continues with the Obama administration "under what I believe is the mistaken
theory that Iran is entitled to the peaceful use of nuclear energy."
"I don't think Iran is entitled to that, or I don't think we ought to allow it
to happen, because they're manifestly violating any number of obligations
under the non-proliferation treaty not to seek nuclear weapons. But this has
been a hole in American policy for some number of years, and Iran and Russia
are obviously exploiting it," Bolton said.
Russia’s move would put Iran "in a much better position overall," he said,
adding, "I think this is a very delicate point, as I say, it closes off to the
Israelis one possible target for pre-emptive military action.
U.N. sanctions against Iran, he said, "have not had and will not have any
material effect on Iran's push to have deliverable nuclear weapons."
Prophecy News - End times Prophecy News for Russia, China, Iran, Bush, World, America, Iraq, Syria, North Korea,
PLEASE SIGN UP AND ADD THESE FREE ADVERTISERS TO YOUR SITE |
||
|
|
|
![]() |
|
|
|
|
|
![]() |
![]() |
|
|
|
|
|
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
Please rate this site at Just4Christ Top 50 Christian Sites |
![]() |
![]() |
||
![]() |
||
|
||
![]() |