A former Israeli spymaster is urging the United States to launch a military strike against Iran’s nuclear sites because Washington has the ability to inflict greater damage than his own nation.
Efrain Halevy, director of the Mossad intelligence service from 1998 to 2002, insisted in a recent interview that neither nation should resort to the military option until all diplomatic efforts are exhausted.
Mr. Halevy, on a visit to Washington last week, added that neither the United States nor Israel would likely destroy Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons site, but either country has the ability to launch strong enough attacks to delay Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“I believe that, if all other means had been totally exhausted I think it’s logical that one should take military means in order to get this [nuclear-weapons] capability removed,” he told Aaron David Miller of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Mr. Halevy added: “I say removed, but I don’t believe it will be removed. I mean it will be delayed.”
He explained that Israel has the military ability to inflict enough damage to delay Iran’s program for a while; but he added that the United States has the force to derail the program for a longer period, which “gives you breathing space to develop other possibilities.”
“That’s why, I believe, that a major priority would be to get the United States to agree to take — how shall I put it — this task upon itself,” he said.
DIPLOMATIC TRAFFIC
Foreign visitors in Washington this week include:
Monday
Neelie Kroes, a vice president of the European Commission, who joins Janet A. Napolitano, U.S. secretary of Homeland Security, to sign a joint declaration to develop stronger protections for children using the Internet.
Adrienne Diop, commissioner for Human Development and Gender of the Economic Community of West African States; Ambassador Said Djinnit, a U.N. special representative for West Africa; and Alexandre Garcia of the French Foreign Ministry. They discuss crime in West Africa at a forum at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Gianfranco Pasquino of the Bologna, Italy, center of the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He joins a panel discussion on the return of the Institutional Revolutionary Party to power in Mexico.
Bassem Bouguerra, founder and executive director of Tunisian Institutional Reform. He discusses the prospects for democracy in Tunisia at a forum at the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Tuesday
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James Morrison joined the The Washington Times in 1983 as a local reporter covering Alexandria, Va. A year later, he was assigned to open a Times bureau in Canada. From 1987 to 1989, Mr. Morrison was The Washington Times reporter in London, covering Britain, Western Europe and NATO issues. After returning to Washington, he served as an assistant foreign editor ...
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