US intervention in Iran ‘will not achieve the objective of destroying its nuclear program’

US intervention in Iran ‘will not achieve the objective of destroying its nuclear program’

for more let’s bring in James Actton He’s co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace James thanks so much for being with us on the program Rapidly escalating conflict mounting concern tonight about where it’s all headed and also whether or not the US might end up intervening here What are you expecting well at this stage I’m pretty concerned about the possibility of US intervention Uh the president has been saying on social media this morning um that um quote we have uh uncontested control over the Iranian skies He’s called for unconditional surrender to Ir of Iran There’s been reports that he’s now met with his national security team uh to discuss the possibility of military action Um and so I think there’s a very realistic chance that the US is going to join the military action at this point uh in particular by trying to attack uh Iran’s deep underground enrichment facility uh for and could Israel actually destroy that particular city uh facility without US assistance or is it actually necessary that the US would would need to join that in order for that particular strike to be successful That facility at Puldo is deep underground uh it’s built directly underneath a mountain Um and by all accounts uh Israel does not have the capability to destroy it I think it’s you know I think the the the clearest evidence for this uh is that if Israel could destroy it would have done so already There was no conceivable reason why if it had that capability it would wait 5 days Um so the US is believed to be the only country with a bunker buster capable of reaching that far down with an airplane big enough to carry that bunker buster Um and so the US does appear to be uh required to strike that facility Though I just want to make it very clear I believe it would be a significant mistake for the United States to join this war Yeah Yeah And you also wrote some time ago that even for Israel to attack Iran Iranians the Iranian nuclear program it would be counterproductive What kind of long-term damage can actually be inflicted here is it possible to even permanently wipe out Iran’s nuclear capabilities as they are currently no Uh Iran built this nuclear program once it can build it again and it can almost certainly do so much more rapidly the next time round Um you know there are hundreds if not thousands of Iranian scientists and technicians involved in the program Uh Israel’s killing of some of those a handful of those unquestionably has a significant effect on the program But Israel can’t wipe out all of that knowledge Uh moreover there are uh centrifuge components that ceased to be under IAEA monitoring when when uh the JCPOA collapsed Uh Iran has almost certainly stockpiled those around the country Uh destroying the small cylinders that that highlyenriched uranium is stored in and is an exceptionally difficult task So part of the reason why I think this mistake was an attack why I think uh sorry why I think this attack was a mistake why I think it would be a mistake for the United States to join uh is precisely because uh I don’t think it will ultimately achieve the objective of destroying Iran’s nuclear program And might Iran also have clandestine facilities or sites that aren’t even known about yes it it made it And you know critics of the Iran deal not unreasonably made the point that there could have been clandestine facilities in Iran um that inspectors didn’t know about But surely that’s an even bigger problem for military action Uh the United States and Israel can’t bomb what they don’t know about And so um you know if there are clandestine facilities in Iran uh then um a military action won’t destroy them but in fact military action will make it harder to detect those facilities because Iran is almost certainly going to curtail its cooperation with inspectors And what about Israel’s nuclear capabilities we hear an awful lot about what’s happening in Iran but what’s the situation actually in Israel i mean by Israel’s nuclear capabilities I’m assuming you’re referring to Israeli nuclear weapons Um you know by all accounts Israel does have nuclear weapons It’s kept those very quiet Uh much of the world clearly sees a degree of hypocrisy at play there Uh there is a legal difference Um you know Iran signed the non-prololiferation treaty It legally committed not to acquire nuclear weapons Uh Israel never signed that agreement I think that is an important and concrete difference Now you know I I I I don’t want to be naive I do think Iran is seeking the capability to acquire nuclear weapons Uh I take that very seriously I don’t want Iran to get nuclear weapons The question here is not whether we support Iran getting nuclear weapons It’s whether military action is the included by the United States is the most effective way of preventing that outcome I strongly believe it’s not And um what about Donald Trump where does he actually get his information from because he see appears to be dismissing the assessment of his own spy agencies who said not so long ago that Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon Now we’re talking about the US potentially joining this Israeli campaign Yeah And you know only this morning uh or maybe it was last night on the way back from the G7 summit Trump directly contradicted his director of national intelligence I think he said almost exact words you know I don’t care what she says Um so I don’t know where he’s getting his information from Um you would have to ask him that question Uh all I can tell you is that what he is saying about Iran’s nuclear program seems to directly contradict what US intelligence agencies are saying about that Okay James we’ll have to leave it there for now Thanks so much for being with us on the program though That is James Actton co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Thanks so much

FRANCE 24’s Sharon Gaffney speaks to James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, about the possibility of a broadening conflict involving the United States. He says that a US intervention in Iran is a mistake as it ‘will not ultimately achieve the objective of destroying its nuclear program’.
#Iran #Israel #war

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