Britannia Radio

'Israel would attack Iran with missiles'

Mar. 17, 2009
Jonathan Beck , THE JERUSALEM POST

An Israeli missile, potentially the medium range ballistic Jericho.

 

If Israel chose to take military action against Iran's nuclear facilities, it might opt not to send IAF jets on a mission but rather use its arsenal of medium-range ballistic missiles, a report published by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said Tuesday.

The Jericho III, Israel's most advanced version of its custom-designed ballistic missile, is capable of carrying a 1,000-1,300 kilogram conventional payload or a 750kg nuclear warhead over a distance of up to 7,000 kilometers. With a smaller 350kg nuclear warhead, the missle's range can be extended even further.

According to the NCIS report, 42 missiles would be enough to "severely damage or demolish" Iran's core nuclear sites at Natanz, Esfahan and Arak.

"If the Jericho III is fully developed and its accuracy is quite high then this scenario could look much more feasible than using combat aircraft," the NCIS report said.

The report also predicted that a Jericho salvo on Iran might draw an Iranian counter-attack with its own Shihab ballistic missiles. The Islamic republic might also take action against Europe and other countries, by choking off oil exports, hitting US assets in the Gulf, or ordering proxy groups like Hizbullah to attack Jewish targets outside Israel.

With regard to regional Arab states, the report claims such countries would not condone any attack on Iran, even though a nuclear Iran threatens them as well. However Israel's reported arsenal of some 200-300 nuclear weapons would make it hard for the Jewish State to label Iran as an existential threat.

Israel's presence in the Golan Heights and the West Bank, perceived as an occupation, would also make it hard for Arab states to side with Israel in any regional conflict, according to the report.

Iran's determination to acquire nuclear weapons, the NCIS report said, is correlated to the degree to which it sees Israel as a threat to the survival of the regime there. The report assessed that Iran would withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty based on the argument that it needs to acquire nuclear weapons to protect it from aggression by Israel and the US.

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