Distracting the World from the Israeli Nuclear Arsenal, Sharon Inciting Bush Against Iran Claiming It's Reaching Nuclear Point of No-Return 

Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:39 AM ET

By Jeffrey Heller

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 

While Iran does not have any nuclear weapons, Israel has a huge arsenal of them. However, Israeli leaders and their supporters in the US and the EU have been trying to prevent Iran from developing any nuclear technology. The objective is keeping Israel as the only nuclear power in the Middle East in order to maintain its occupation of Arab lands and maintain its hegemony on the oil-rich region.

Within this context, the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, has been pressuring the US officials he met with to persuade them to take measures against Iran until it gives up its nuclear program.

Iran is reaching the point of no return in learning how to build a nuclear bomb, a senior Israeli official said Wednesday after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon raised the issue in talks with U.S. leaders.

"There has to be immediate action taken against Iran," the official said, referring to international sanctions. "We have to take this to the U.N. Security Council. They are the only ones with the tools to deal with this."

Sharon spoke of "Iran's nuclear threat" in talks in Washington on Tuesday with Vice President Dick Cheney, the official said. The Israeli leader also raised the issue at a meeting with President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas Monday.

"There is a time limit because Iran will soon reach a technological point of no return," the official added. "We are not talking about when Iran actually produces nuclear weapons, but when it has the technological ability to do so."

Iran says it has no interest in the bomb and wants nuclear power plants to meet booming demand for electricity.

Tehran has frozen its enrichment program, but refuses to relinquish permanently what it sees as a sovereign right to produce low-enriched uranium fuel for its nuclear power program.

In a report Wednesday, The New York Times quoted U.S. officials as saying Sharon gave Bush aerial photographs of sites in Iran and urged him to step up pressure on the Islamic Republic to give up its nuclear program.

In a conversation lasting more than an hour, the newspaper said, Sharon argued that European nations negotiating with Iran were softening their position and may be willing to allow it to hold on to technology to enrich uranium.

The Times said U.S. officials interpreted Sharon's evidence differently and believe any Iranian nuclear weapons are likely to be several years away.

Sharon was due to fly home later on Wednesday, ending a four-day visit clouded by differences with Bush over illegal Israeli settlement growth on the Palestinian occupied lands.

The prime minister, who won praise from the president for Israel's planned pullout from the Gaza Strip this summer, insisted in remarks to reporters that there was no crisis with the United States over the West Bank settlement issue.