Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon issued a veiled threat against Iranian nuclear experts saying the Jewish state had a right to defend itself and that he was not “responsible for their lives”. In an interview to German weekly Der Spiegel due to appear on Saturday, Yaalon said: “Iran’s nuclear ambitions must be stopped in one way or another. “We would like this to be done through accords or sanctions,” he said. “But finally, Israel must be in a position to defend itself.” Asked specifically about targeting Iranian experts or staging acts of sabotage, he said: “I am not responsible for the lives of the Iranian scientists.” Several Iranian experts have been assassinated and there has been a hacking attack, both blamed by Tehran on Israel and the United States. Iran and the United States, along with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, recently struck a deal meant to ensure Iran’s nuclear program could not produce a bomb. The deal, that rewards Iran with a lifting of crippling sanctions, must be reviewed and approved by lawmakers in the US and Iran before it can be implemented. Yaalon said if Iran did not respect its engagements, Israel could stage air strikes and once again called the July 14 deal between Tehran and the world powers an “historic error”. Israel had right from the beginning opposed Iran and 5+1 nuclear talks to settle the Iranian nuclear issue and after the agreement between two sides, the Jewish state is using its lobby in Washington to get it rejected from the US Congress. At the same time Israeli Defence Minister has issued a veiled threat against Iranian nuclear scientists saying that Tel Aviv had a right to defend itself and that it was not responsible for their lives. The Israeli threat is bound to aggravate situation in the already volatile Middle East region and there is a possibility that it may scuttle the nuclear agreement. Of course every country has a legitimate right to plan for the defence of its territory but to achieve this objective through a pre-emptive strike against a sovereign State is against all international norms. The US under former President Bush had propounded theories of pre-emptive strikes and regimes change, which were reflective of jungle rule and were condemnedby the civilized world. In the given scenario, anything can be expected from Israel because in 1981, the Israelis bombed and destroyed a French built Iraqi nuclear plant at Osirak near Baghdad. The French atomic industry at that time said the 70-megawatt uranium-powered reactor had not been stocked with nuclear fuel. Iraq also denied that the reactor was destinedto produce nuclear weapons but it did no react to the Israeli attack as then President Saddam Hussain did not have required military power to counter the aggression. The situation in case of Iran is different and therefore the Israeli warning should be taken very seriously and particularly so because in the past Iranian nuclear scientists were kidnapped and killed. In our view the US should rein in Israel and UN should take notice of the threat because it has all the danger of greatly destabilising the region in to a hell.
pk.shafaqna.com
