Dichter: US may have to attack Iran

Former Shin Bet head: Iran won't drop nuclear program of its own volition.

By JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
iran nuke plant 298.88 (photo credit: AP)
iran nuke plant 298.88
(photo credit: AP)
If Iran reaches the point of no return in its drive for a nuclear capability, America will have to resort to a military option to thwart it, the former head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Avi Dichter, said on Sunday. Speaking at a conference of the AIPAC pro-Israel lobby in Los Angeles, Dichter said he saw no prospect whatsoever of Iran abandoning its nuclear program of its own volition. Only "western pressure," led by the United States, could halt Teheran's nuclear drive. Dichter recalled that the entire international community condemned Israel for bombing Iraq's nuclear facility at Osiraq in 1981, only to subsequently recognize how crucial Israel's action had been in blocking Saddam Hussein's push for nuclear weapons. Similarly, he said, if Iran were to reach "the irreversible point," America would have to do in Iran what Israel had done in Iraq.