Israel pushes for definitive action against Iran nuclear program

Washington Post

JERUSALEM -- Israel, which initially tolerated President Obama's effort to thwart Iranian nuclear ambitions through sanctions, has grown increasingly impatient in recent weeks with the approach and concerned that whatever is agreed to now at the U.N. Security Council will only allow Iran more time to advance its program.

A fourth round of potential sanctions unveiled by the Obama administration on Tuesday did little to allay Israel's fears that the world doesn't seem able to stop Iran from continuing to enrich uranium or develop what Israel believes is a covert nuclear weapons program.

Israeli officials and commentators say that nothing short of a sanction of Iran's energy sector will work. And with no sign of that in the offing, the prospect of Israeli military action, which Israeli officials have always said remains an option if sanctions fail, looms larger.

"We are frustrated with the fact that Iran does not feel the pressure of the world, does not care about the demands of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the U.N., because we feel that time is running out," Tsachi Hanegbi, chairman of the Israeli Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said in an interview.

An Israeli security official recently complained of a muddled discourse on sanctions that has made the ultimate objective unclear: whether the Obama administration is trying to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb or only to roll back its growing capabilities. Israeli officials have been seeking clarity from their U.S. counterparts on what the U.S. plan is for preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear device should sanctions fail.

In the years that the United States has tried to build an effective sanctions regime, Iran has acquired a stockpile of at least two tons of low-enriched uranium, which is enough for at least one bomb. Israel believes Iran has also been developing a method for weaponizing highly enriched uranium. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes.

An analysis in Haaretz on Friday by the newspaper's intelligence correspondent, Yossi Melman, titled "Strike -- or Sit Tight," illustrated the mood by week's end.

Moshe Yaalon, Israel's deputy prime minister, said earlier this month that Israel has the capabilities to attack Iran and described the possibility of a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Israel has acted unilaterally in the past to set back nuclear programs. In 1981, it obliterated an Iraqi nuclear reactor and in 2007 it struck at a suspected Syrian nuclear site.

"Israel is led to a position in which less than a year the government might need to make a terrible decision, either to get used to the sad fact that Iran has nuclear weapons, and nothing can stop it, or try to do something in order to do it by ourselves," said Giora Eiland, a former Israeli national security adviser.

Israeli frustrations with the inability of the United States to build international consensus for a tougher approach toward Iran started to mount last fall when a separate U.S.-led effort to persuade Iran to ship out its low-enriched uranium faltered.

With U.N. sanctions going nowhere, Israel prodded and failed to persuade the Obama administration to impose sanctions on Iran's petroleum sector, even after the House and Senate passed legislation enabling it to do so. In April, Iran's announcement that it had produced faster centrifuges further rattled Israel.

Israel issued no official response this week to the new Security Council sanctions package circulated by the United States. It also refrained from publicly commenting on a new Turkish-Brazilian deal to send part of Iran's low-enriched uranium stockpile to Turkey.

The Turkey-Brazil deal involves Iran sending a large part of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium to Turkey as a trust-building measure possibly within one month. In return, Iran would receive highly enriched uranium fuel rods for use in a medical reactor.

Some Israeli politicians and commentators articulated the government's skepticism of Turkish-style engagement or U.S.-led consensus-building on sanctions being able to cause Iran to change course.

The Turkish-Brazil deal will "make it very difficult" to build consensus at the United Nations, an Israeli official said. "Now, you have a package of proposed sanctions that is uncertain at best, which is certainly not crippling. The question is what will be taken out of the deal to convince as many countries as possible to come on board."

The package includes measures meant to restrain Iran's military, financial and shipping activities.

The Turkey-Brazil deal unleashed a bout of frustration in the Israeli press with the United States. Alex Fishman, a commentator for the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, wrote: "The Americans are willing to play the part of the world idiot versus the Iranians, but worse than, that they expect Israel to join their dance of fools as well."