RIYADH, April 16: Israel reportedly handed over documents and aerial photos of Iranian nuclear installations to President Bush during the Texas summit earlier this week, Israeli public radio reported on Saturday.
Ariel Sharon’s military adviser General Yoav Gallan Gallan, who accompanied the Israeli premier to the summit, presented the photos together with information the Israeli intelligence services claim to have gathered on Tehran’s nuclear programme, the Israeli radio added, without mentioning how the photos were taken.
It just said that the images showed the Iranian nuclear programme was at a “very advanced” stage. This stance apparently differed from the US version that Iran was at least five years away from making a nuclear device. “Our intelligence community has used in the past an estimate that said Iran is not likely to acquire a nuclear weapon before the beginning of the next decade. That remains the case,” he said.
“But I don’t think there’s any dispute that Iran should not have the capabilities, the programmes that have been used and that can be used as cover for nuclear weapons development.”
Estimates of Iran’s nuclear arms capability have varied over the years. In 1994, then CIA Director James Woolsey said the belief was that Iran was eight to 10 years away from building such weapons.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan also confirmed the two leaders had “talked about their shared concern about Iran’s intentions with their nuclear programme”.
Israeli defence officials asked Mr Sharon to raise the option of military attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities during talks with President Bush. The New York Times said Mr Sharon spread out photos of Iranian nuclear sites and cited Israeli intelligence that showed Iran was near “a point of no return” in developing the know-how to produce a bomb.
In his presentation to Mr Bush, Mr Sharon reportedly expressed frustration that efforts by France, Germany and Britain to wean Iran off its nuclear ambitions through incentives were stalling. On the other hand, US officials have so far refused Israeli entreaties to discuss the military option against Iran as a last resort if diplomatic pressure fails.
“We are not managing to get the Americans to talk about what will happen if the diplomatic efforts fail and Iran resumes enriching uranium, putting it on track to an atomic bomb,” a senior defence official was quoted as saying.
Washington and Israel have repeatedly accused Iran of covertly trying to develop a nuclear weapons programme, a charge denied by Tehran, which maintains it needs nuclear power as an alternative energy source.
