EU Assessment: Israel Incapable of Stopping Iran Nuclear pogram. Program
EU diplomatic sources who specialize in the Middle East believe that Israel cannot stop the Iranian nuclear program on its own using military means. "Iran's counterstrike would not be the end of the story. There is no military solution and no stabilizing outcome," the EU source said. The assessment comes within the context of serious concerns in Europe that Israel, feeling its back against the wall, would strike Iran's nuclear facilities, even under the assumption that such action would only set back the Iranian program, not destroy it. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told the German government, for example, that Israel will not allow Iran to go nuclear. At the same time, the overall assessment in the EU is that sanctions have not significantly impacted Iranian policy thus far, and are unlikely to do so in the future. EU sources also consider it unrealistic to expect any pressures on Tehran over its nuclear drive to result in a regime change.
In his latest report to the 35-nation Board of Governors, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei confirmed "the non-diversion" of nuclear material in Iran and added that the agency had found no "components of a nuclear weapon" or "related nuclear physics studies" in the country. The IAEA report confirmed that Iran has managed to enrich uranium-235 to a level 'less than 5 percent.' Such a rate is consistent with the construction of a nuclear power plant. Nuclear arms production, meanwhile, requires an enrichment level of above 90 percent.
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