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U.S. and Israel Split on Speed of Iran Threat

(New York Times) Mark Landler and David E. Sanger - The U.S. and Israel remain at odds over whether Iran's crucial nuclear facilities are about to become impregnable. The Israelis have zeroed in on Iran's plan to put much of its uranium enrichment near Qum in an underground facility beneath so many layers of granite that even the Pentagon acknowledges it would be out of the reach of its best bunker-busting bombs. The Israelis say that once the Iranians get an "impregnable breakout capability" - that is, a place that is protected from a military strike - "it makes no difference whether it will take Iran six months or a year or five years" to fabricate a nuclear weapon. However, a senior American official said "there are many other options" to slow Iran's march to a completed weapon, like shutting off Iran's oil revenues, taking out facilities that supply centrifuge parts or singling out installations where the Iranians would turn the fuel into a weapon.
2012-02-09 00:00:00
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