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October 31, 2003/Cheshvan 5 5764, Vol. 56, No. 6
Beware of Iranian nukes
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Israel is warning that Iran's ac-quiescence to a European ultimatum to freeze de-velopment of nuclear power should not be trusted.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the Cabinet this week that Iran does not really intend to suspend its nuclear project, and is "only trying to buy time."
"Iran's agreement to put its nuclear project under super-vision should be regarded as temporary and limited," Mofaz said.
Key members of the opposition Labor Party, such as the former defense minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, and the former deputy defense minister, Ephraim Sneh, share Mofaz's view.
"I have no doubt that the Iranians cheated the Euro-peans," Ben-Eliezer told JTA on Oct. 27. "The Europeans see mostly their economic interest, and they are shortsighted."
"The problem is that the Europeans want to be cheat-ed," Sneh said, suggesting that the positive reaction in Europe to Tehran's an-nouncement of compliance is indication of how fervently Europe wants to avoid a serious rift with Iran over the issue.
A special team from the International Atomic Energy Agency went to Iran at the beginning of this month and is still there. The U.N.-backed group has set an Oct. 31 deadline for Iran to come clean.
The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany last week claimed they had persuaded Iran's ruling ayatollahs to suspend the country's suspected uranium enrichment program and allow international inspection of nuclear sites.
The E.U. foreign ministers said that once Iran signed the protocol of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency approves the country's revised nuclear program, Europe would provide Iran with technical know-how.
No one in Israel denies that, whatever its ultimate goals, Iran is trying hard to be nice toward the West. This week, it claimed to have deported 225 Al-Qaida members to their home countries.
The United States has said that none of the men appeared to be top members of the terrorist group, but the fact that Iran boasted about the deportations shows that Iran wants to move from con-frontation to dialogue, ob-servers said.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid-Reza Asefi, announced Oct. 26 that Iran had stopped the uranium enrichment process. Someone in the regime apparently thought the spokesman was going too far, however, and his statement later was corrected to say that the country was "negotiating" to stop the uranium enrichment process.
"This is an indication of the internal debate in Iran," said Menashe Amir, head of the Persian program on Voice of Israel radio. Amir, considered a top expert on internal Iranian politics, said in an interview that the clerics who run the country are following a two-faced policy.
On the one hand, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei has guided Hassan Rohani, secretary-general of Iran's national security council, to reach an agreement with the European foreign ministers, Amir said. On the other, the ayatollahs that run the country instigated massive demonstrations protesting Iran's intention to cooperate with the Europeans.
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