by Praveen Swami
None of this is reason enough to be sanguine. Iran has developed missiles that can deliver a one-tonne warhead, the typical weight of a nuclear weapon, up to 1,000 kilometres — evidence that the idea of possessing one figures in its military imagination. Bruno Tertrais, an eminent French scholar, has also pointed out that just two countries that acquired the capabilities to make nuclear weapons didn't eventually succumb to the temptation of building one.
But will they use one? “Iranians,” Israeli expert Avner Cohen has aruged, “are aware of the catastrophic consequences of such an act.” The Centre for Strategic and International Studies estimates that the Israeli nuclear arsenal, at more than 200 boosted and fusion weapons, is enough to annihilate Iran.
Irrational actors?
In Israel and the U.S., some experts argue that Iran's theocratic leadership simply can't be counted on to be deterred by nuclear weapons — and thus, even the smallest risk that it could acquire one must be eliminated. In 2005, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered an apocalyptic speech, arguing that the “establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world.” “The outcomes of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land,” he continued. “Israel must be wiped off the map.”
http://newageislam.com/current-affairs/praveen-swami/is-iran-on-the-nuclear-edge?/d/7263
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10:58 PM
Moderate Islamist here
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