Western countries need to form a coalition of air forces now and attack Iran’s
nuclear facilities, former Mossad director Danny Yatom said on
Sunday.
Only military force can stop Iran, the former Labor MK said,
speaking at an International Institute for Counter-Terrorism conference at the
Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.
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I am hopeful that the world will come to its senses and reach the conclusion
that to stop the Iranian nuclear arms race, we will have to attack some of their
nuclear facilities,” Yatom said, in rare comments by a former top Israeli
security official regarding the use of force against the Islamic
Republic.
While some of Iran’s nuclear facilities are scattered
throughout the country and are in fortified bunkers deep underground, if the
world “mobilizes its capabilities” it would be possible to cause enough damage
to delay the program.
“If the modern air forces led by the United States
mobilize their capabilities it is possible, if not to completely remove the
threat, at least to delay it for years to come,” Yatom said.
While
refraining from discussing specific Israeli capabilities, he said that if the
world failed to meet the challenge, Israel would “retain the right to
self-defense.”
“Figure out for yourselves what that means,” he told the
audience.
Yatom said that Israel could not live with a nuclear
Iran.
“I don’t want to be in a situation that I will be sitting in Israel
and my fate will be in the hands of others, especially when we are talking about
a lunatic regime,” he said. “I don’t want to be the subject of an Iranian
experiment.”
Yatom’s predecessor as Mossad chief, Shabtai Shavit, weighed
in on the recent socalled “Galant Document” scandal that rocked the IDF and said
that Col. Erez Weiner, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi’s top
aide, could not be promoted due to his involvement in the affair.
Weiner
gave a copy of the document to a former IDF officer, who then leaked it to
Channel 2.
“We need to immediately clear the IDF of extraneous
considerations,” Shavit said.
He also warned against appointing one of
the majorgenerals who lost the bid to replace Ashkenazi as the next head of the
Mossad.
“For the defense minister, this is another ploy to build
coalitions and garner support for his policies by appointing people who will be
in his debt,” Shavit said.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak met on Sunday with
a group of senior IDF officers who are candidates for new positions, as incoming
chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant leaves the reins at the Southern
Command in the coming weeks.
Barak held meetings with the head of the IDF
Operations Directorate Maj.-Gen. Tal Russo and OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen.
Gadi Eizenkot.
Russo is rumored to be a candidate to replace Galant as OC
Southern Command, and Eizenkot has asked to remain as OC Northern Command or be
appointed deputy chief of General Staff under Galant.