U .N. nuclear watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei told Al-Arabiya television that Iran could have a nuclear weapon within six months. "If Iran wants to turn to the production of nuclear weapons, it must leave the NPT, expel the IAEA inspectors, and then it would need at least, considering the number of centrifuges and the quantity of uranium Iran has...It would need at least six months to one year," ElBaradei said. When asked "If Iran decides today to expel the IAEA from the country, it will need six months to produce [nuclear] weapons?" He answered, "It would need this period to produce a weapon, and to obtain highly-enriched uranium in sufficient quantities for a single nuclear weapon."
ElBaradei also warned that he will resign as chief of the U.N. nuclear agency if Iran is attacked by any country. "I always think of resigning in the event of a military strike...If military force is used, I would conclude that there is no mechanism left for me to defend," he said.
ElBaradei's comments comes as an adviser to Israel's security council told the press that Syria was planning to supply Iran with spent nuclear fuel from the site it bombed last year. The Israeli adviser said: "The Iranians were involved in the Syrian program. The idea was that the Syrians produce plutonium and the Iranians get their share. Syria had no reprocessing facility for the spent fuel. It's not deduction alone that brings almost everyone to think that the link exists.
And as Iran pursues a nuclear program at home, a new U.S. military report called Iran the "greatest long-term threat to Iraqi security" and provided evidence of continued shipments of arms and money to Shiite militias.
The report said U.S. and Iraqi forces in Basra found Iranian-made weapons that had been manufactured earlier this year, after Iranian officials said that they would take measures to curb such shipments. The report said Iran has been assisting in "large-scale trafficking of arms, ammunition, and explosives," and helping to "fund, train, arm and guide numerous networks that conduct wide-scale insurgency operations."
