Iran was working on developing a missile with 10,000 km range that would
put America in reach of a potential Iranian attack, Strategic Affairs
Minister and Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon said Thursday.
According
to Ya'alon, the missile was based on a solid fuel propellant and would
have been able to significantly increase Iran's offensive capabilities. In November , a mysterious explosion rocked an Iranian missile base near Tehran where Iran was working on developing this long range missile.
Ya'alon also said that Turkey is helping Iran bypass the sanctions that have been imposed on it in recent months.
According
to the vice prime minister, who was in the United States last week for talks on
Iran with senior officials from the Obama administration, Turkey was
helping Iran circumvent the sanctions by allowing it to use its banking
system.
Ya'alon said that the Israeli government was committed to stopping Iran's nuclear program "in one way or another."
"We
need a credible military option. The Iranians understand the West has
capabilities, but as long as the Iranians don't think that the West has
the political stomach and determination to use it they will not stop,"
Ya'alon affirmed. "Currently they don't think that the world is determined."
Ya'alon also stated that all Iranian facilities can be reached in a military strike. "Anything built by humans can be destroyed by humans... I say this from experience as a former IDF chief of staff," he said.
Ya'alon
also said that Iran and Hezbollah were working with drug cartels in
Mexico to learn how to smuggle materials into the US, a conduit that
could one day be used to smuggle weapons into the country.
Ya'alon
said that the "crippling sanctions" that are being imposed on Iran such
as the ban on oil exports could succeed in posing a "clear dilemma" for
the regime, whether it wants to continue its nuclear program and risk
the survival of the Islamic regime or stop and open in dialogue with the
West.
Ya'alon said that the West still does not fully understand
the severity of the nuclear threat posed by Iran. "America is the
larger Satan," he said.