Reply #4: Mossad chief: Iran will be able to build nukes within 5 years

[lovuian]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/531437.html

Mossad chief: Iran will be able to build nukes within 5 years

By Gideon Alon



Mossad chief Meir Dagan warned yesterday that by the end of this year, Iran will have reached the point of no return in its technology for manufacturing nuclear bombs. Three to four years later, he told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the Iranians will be able to build a nuclear bomb.




Dagan said there are hints of nuclear programs under way in other Middle Eastern countries, such as Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia. He said that Egypt has capabilities in the realm of nuclear technology, but it only uses nuclear power for civilian purposes. In Syria, there are hints of nuclear projects, he said, and while Saudi Arabia does not have nuclear capabilities, it might have contracts for materiel relevant to a nuclear program.

As for Iran, Dagan said that there is no doubt that Iran is now the most advanced country and is approaching nuclear capability. He said Iran was almost finished building the facility for manufacturing nuclear fuel and had in effect reached industrial-scale production of enriched uranium. They have also improved their manufacturing of centrifuges.

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From Haaretz today!!!

http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2005/01/24/57953.html


Russian-Syrian meeting: peace efforts and international terrorism are the main themes

16:35 2005-01-24
Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon by phone that he won't sign a contract to sell SA-18 surface-to-air missiles to Syria, the daily Haaretz reported Monday.
The reported promise, said to have been made by Putin on Thursday, came on the day that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad begins a four-day official visit to Russia.
The paper said that Sharon had explained to the Russian leader that the arms, also called Igla missiles, risked falling into the hands of Syrian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon, who are violently opposed to Israel.




Syria is asking for Missiles from Russia