IDF: Iran nearing 20% uranium enrichment

Brig.-Gen. Itai Bron tells Knesset committee that international pressure, sanctions pushed Iran to talks.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Ahamadenijad 260 (photo credit: REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl)
Ahamadenijad 260
(photo credit: REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl)
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.

Click here for full Jpost coverage of the Iranian threat
Click here for full Jpost coverage of the Iranian threat
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.”