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Attack Iran ‘before it develops nukes’: Bolton

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: The European Union needs to “get more serious” about Iran and recognise that its diplomatic attempts to halt Iran’s enrichment programme have failed, John Bolton, who still has close links to the Bush administration, told The Daily Telegraph.

Iran has “clearly mastered the enrichment technology...they’re not stopping, they’re making progress and our time is limited”, he said. “Economic sanctions ‘with pain’ have to be the next step, followed by attempts to overthrow the theocratic regime and, ultimately, military action to destroy nuclear sites,” the Telegraph quoted Bolton.

Bolton’s warnings appear to have been validated by leaks about an inspection by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of Iran’s main nuclear installation at Natanz on Sunday. Experts found that Iran’s scientists are operating 1,312 centrifuges, machines used to enrich uranium. If Iran can install 3,000, it will need about one year to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb, reported the Telegraph.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Bolton has said that it has been proven that Iran will not abandon its nuclear programme and only increasing pressure on them can stop them.

He said that if enough countries cannot be convinced to take part in such an initiative, a regime change must be considered because that could be the only way the Iran government would deem it safer not to pursue nuclear weapons. “And if all else fails, if the choice is between a nuclear-capable Iran and the use of force, then I think we need to look at the use of force,” he added.

“Imagine what it would be like with a nuclear Iran…the influence it could have over the entire region when it’s already pushing its influence in Iraq through the financing of terrorist groups like Hamas,” Bolton told the Daily Telegraph. He also criticised British PM Tony Blair for attempting to negotiate with Iran when such efforts were “doomed to failure”. The Pentagon has drawn up contingency plans for military action and some senior White House officials share Bolton’s thinking.

Meanwhile, Brandeis University Crown Centre for Middle East studies director Shai Feldman said that he believed that the Bush administration could still decide to launch a military strike on Iran towards the end of its term in office. Talking to the Jerusalem Post, he said that economic sanctions could still work because they feed into discontent within Iran focused on President Ahmadinejad regarding the economic situation.

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