Thursday, July 9, 2009

National Security Council head Uzi Arad laments Israel's 'abominable' past failure on Iran

(Haaretz).National Security Council head Uzi Arad says in an exclusive interview in Friday's Haaretz Magazine that the Benjamin Netanyahu government has inherited a "scorched earth" policy on the Iranian nuclear threat from the last administration.

Israel displayed an "abominable" failure to address Tehran's nuclear development between 2003 and 2007, Arad says, and while he suggests a potential naval blockade on the Islamic Republic, he adds, "The more credible and concrete the option, the less likely that it will be needed."

Should efforts to halt Iran's centrifuges fail and it becomes a nuclear power, the result would be a multi-nuclear Middle East, with five or six states resembling Pakistan.

The national security chief described this situation as a "nightmare." He doesn't consider "living with" a nuclear Iran to be an option, as the West has done with the Soviet Union and China.