The Growing Nuclear Threat of Iran

CBN news:

By John Jessup

Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON - This week in London, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the West to do more to oppose Iran’s growing nuclear threat. Using the backdrop of last week's terror bombing on the city's rail and bus system, Netanyahu - who's now the Israeli finance minister - said Iran’s regime supports terror with links to Hezbollah and Hamas. He also said Iran "will move as fast as it can to develop nuclear weapons, regardless of who leads it."

There was some hope that Iran’s recent elections might bring some reform. Instead, it catapulted Tehran’s ultraconservative, hard-line Muslim mayor to victory. This week he asserted Iran’s independence and warned Western nations not to make demands of his country, which the U.S. accuses of pursuing nuclear weapons.

Some media reports indicated that the defeated presidential candidate, Hashemi Rafsanjani, appeared more willing to negotiate on the now-frozen nuclear program, calling him both a "pragmatist" and a "moderate," but the record suggests that is untrue.

In December 2001, the Iran Press Service quoted Rafsanjani as saying that Muslims should use nuclear weapons against Israel.

Speaking to a crowd in Tehran, he said, "When the Islamic world acquires atomic weapons, the strategy of the West will hit a dead end, since the use of a single atomic bomb has the power to destroy Israel completely, while it will only cause partial damage to the Islamic world."

Iran’s nuclear program is not its only challenge. U.S. and coalition troops continue to fight a stream of foreign fighters crossing the border from Iran into Iraq.

In early 2002, President Bush called Iran a member of the "Axis of Evil." With its nuclear program, support of terrorism, and interference in Iraq, it is unlikely that the U.S. is going to change that assessment any time soon.