Iran is getting closer to the nuclear threshold, Brig.-Gen. Itai Bron, head of
the IDF Intelligence research department, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and
Defense Committee on Tuesday.
“International pressure and sanctions
concern the Iranian regime and pushed them into talks,” Bron told the
committee.
At the same time, the pressure has not brought a change in
Tehran’s nuclear plans. Bron said Iran entered talks while avoiding closing the
nuclear site in Qom and continuing to enrich uranium.
By the end of this
year, Bron explained, there will be enough uranium enriched to 20 percent for
one nuclear site. Once this occurs, Iran will be able to produce a bomb in six
months to a year-and-a-half.
In addition, Iran has 450 missiles capable
of reaching Israel, and will continue to plan terrorist attacks abroad, such as
those in Thailand, India and Georgia, as a response to international
pressure.
The meeting was the first in which MK Ronnie Bar-On (Kadima)
served as chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and he said he
was honored to have the privilege to lead the committee in such a “sensitive
time.”
“For a long time now, the region has been under great, historic
upheaval,” Bar-On stated. “What looked like the Arab Spring ended up as the
winter of radical Islam, which is growing stronger in a volatile region.”