Doug Henwood Talks

Talk of Israeli strike in Iran shows risks: Rice

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said
on Sunday that speculation about an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear
facilities underscored the risk of failing to persuade Tehran to halt
uranium enrichment.

Rice, in an interview with Israel’s Channel 10 television, said she
believed there was still “plenty of room for diplomacy” in curbing an
Iranian nuclear program that Western powers fear could lead to making
bombs.

Asked for her view of an Israeli military operation in Iran should
diplomacy fail, she replied: “Well, I think that even talk of such
just shows how very serious it would be to have Iran continue its
programs unabated.”

Rice was in Israel and the Palestinian Territories as part of a
regional visit to explore the chances of reviving Israeli-Palestinian
peacemaking and to seek Arab help to stabilize Iraq.

Britain’s Sunday Times reported a week ago that Israel had drawn up
secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with
tactical nuclear weapons.

Israel has refused to rule out pre-emptive military action against
Iran along the lines of its 1981 air strike against an atomic reactor
in Iraq, though many analysts believe Iran’s nuclear facilities are
too much for Israel to take on alone.

Washington has said military force remains an option while insisting
that its priority is to reach a diplomatic solution.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously last month to impose
sanctions on Iran to try to stop its uranium enrichment. Tehran
insists its plans are peaceful and says it will continue enrichment.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be
“wiped off the map.” Israel, widely believed to have the Middle
East’s only nuclear arsenal, has said it will not allow Iran to
acquire nuclear weapons.

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