Israel makes preparations as fears of Iran's threat intensify

AMID MOUNTING speculation that Israel may be considering a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities this autumn, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has warned that Teheran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear bomb.

“Every threat against the home front is dwarfed by one threat. Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon,” Mr Netanyahu told ministers.

His comments followed Israeli media reports, quoting a senior Jerusalem official, that Iran has made significant progress in developing the components for assembling a nuclear warhead.

According to the unidentified official, new intelligence obtained by Israel, the United States and other western states shows that Iran has made significant progress towards assembling a nuclear warhead for a Shahab-3 missile, which has a range of 1,500km, putting the whole of Israel within the Islamic republic’s range.

In a further sign that Israel is stepping up preparation for a possible showdown with Iran, thousands of residents yesterday received SMS cell phone messages sent by the army’s home front command.

The military plans to send text messages in real time to Israelis in the event of a military confrontation, warning of incoming rocket attacks in specific areas.

During this week’s dry run, the army is texting hundreds of thousands of residents all over the country in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and English.

Deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon yesterday called on the western powers to declare that the ongoing negotiations with Iran, conducted by the P5 plus one (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany). He called for Iran to be presented with an ultimatum of a “few weeks” to cease its nuclear programme.

The Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported that Mr Netanyahu and defence minister Ehud Barak both favour a unilateral strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities before the US presidential election in November.

Jerusalem and Washington are convinced that Iran’s nuclear programme is designed for military purposes.

However, while Washington believes there is still time for diplomacy, Israel maintains that Iran is on the verge of becoming a “threshold state”, capable of making a nuclear weapon when it decides to do so.