Israel’s Chief-of-Staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz does not believe Iran will take the decision to build a nuclear bomb, he told an Israeli newspaper in an <\/span>interview published on Wednesday<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Speaking to the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, Gantz said Iran was going “step-by-step to the place where it will be able to decide if it wants to manufacture a nuclear bomb.<\/span><\/p>\n “It still hasn’t decided yet whether to go the extra mile,” he said, expressing a view also held by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama.<\/span><\/p>\n Iran has already developed the capacity to enrich uranium to 20 percent, which is used to create medical isotopes, but going “the extra mile” would mean working to enrich to 90 percent \u2013 the level needed to make nuclear weapons.<\/span><\/p>\n “If the supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wants, he will move forward towards acquiring a nuclear bomb, but the decision must first be taken,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n “In my opinion, he would be making a huge mistake if he does so, and I don’t think he will want to go the extra mile,” Gantz said.<\/span><\/p>\n “I think that the Iranian leadership is made up of very rational people.”<\/span><\/p>\n Israel and much of the West suspect Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover for a weapons drive \u2013 a charge which Tehran vehemently denies.<\/span><\/p>\n In recent months, there have been growing concerns the Jewish state might launch a preemptive military strike on Iran in a bid to destroy, or at least severely disable, its nuclear program.<\/span><\/p>\n Source<\/a><\/p>\n Israel’s military chief said he does not believe <\/span>Iran<\/span><\/strong><\/a> will decide to produce an atomic bomb, describing its leadership as “very rational” in an interview published on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz’s characterization of Iran’s rulers appeared to be at odds with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s oft-stated warnings that Islamic leaders could opt to use nuclear weapons even at the risk of devastating retaliation.<\/span><\/p>\n “Iran is moving step-by-step towards a point where it will be able to decide if it wants to make a nuclear bomb. It has not decided yet whether to go the extra mile,” Gantz told the Haaretz daily.<\/span><\/p>\n “In my opinion, (Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) will be making a huge mistake if he does that and I don’t think he will want to go the extra mile,” Gantz said.<\/span><\/p>\n Israel, believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, sees a nuclear armed Iran as an existential threat. Teheran denies seeking the bomb and says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n Both Israel and the United States have declined to rule out military action against Iran should economic sanctions fail to curb its nuclear program, saying all options were on the table.<\/span><\/p>\n “I think the Iranian leadership is comprised of very rational people,” Gantz said. “But I agree that such a capability in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists, who at some moments may make different calculations, is a dangerous thing.”<\/span><\/p>\n In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Netanyahu said he wouldn’t want to bet “the security of the world on Iran’s rational behavior”. A “militant Islamic regime”, he said, “can put their ideology before their survival”.<\/span><\/p>\n Iran this month began negotiations over its nuclear program with six world powers for the first time in more than a year.<\/span><\/p>\n “Either Iran takes its nuclear program to a civilian footing only, or the world, perhaps us too, will have to do something. We’re closer to the end of the discussions than the middle,” Gantz said.<\/span><\/p>\nIsrael army chief says Iran unlikely to make bomb<\/h2>\n
Maayan Lubell \u2013 Reuters April 25, 2012<\/h3>\n
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