Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Sought Pakistani Advice on Nuclear Facilities Attack

Former Pakistan’s army chief Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg is seen during an interview with The Associated Press, in this file photo from, Jan. 28, 2004 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Pakistan’s former army chief says Iranian officials came to him for advice on heading off an attack on their nuclear facilities, and he in effect advised them to take a hostage- Israel.

ASSociated Press: Iran Sought Advice in Pakistan on Attack

Pakistan’s former army chief says Iranian officials came to him for advice on heading off an attack on their nuclear facilities, and he in effect advised them to take a hostage â€”
Israel.

Retired Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg said he suggested their government “make it clear that if anything happens to Iran, if anyone attacks it â€” it doesn’t matter who it is or how it is attacked â€” that Iran’s answer will be to hit Israel; the only target will be Israel.”

Since Beg spoke in an interview with The Associated Press, echoes of his thinking have been heard in Iran, though whether they result directly from his advice isn’t known.

Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, was quoted last week as saying that if “America does make any mischief, the first place we target will be Israel.” The threat was disavowed the next day by Brig. Gen. Alireza Afshar, deputy to the chief of Iran’s military staff, who said it was Dehghani’s “personal view and has no validity as far as the Iranian military officials are concerned.”

And on Tuesday, Israel’s vice premier, Shimon Peres, warned that “Those who threaten to destroy are in danger of being destroyed.”

In the AP interview that took place several weeks before these threats were exchanged, Beg said a delegation from the Iranian Embassy in Pakistan had come to his office in January, seeking advice as Western pressure mounted on Iran to abandon its nuclear effort. Beg said he offered lessons learned from his experience dealing with India’s nuclear threat.

This is a well understood strategy and why missle defense strategy is at the foremost of Israeli and American defense planning.

Washington Times: Why Iran is so dangerous

Helping Israel upgrade its Arrow interceptors is most important since Israel is the prime target. It also is urgent to get sea-based missile defenses on ships in the Persian Gulf, to build the planned missile defense site in Europe, and to speed development of boost-phase defenses that can stop missiles of any range or capability.

Missile Threat (The Claremont Institute): News Archive: Iran

Rubin Interview on Iranian Capabilities

Janeâ€™s: Iran Moving Shahab-3 Missiles

Flap would not undersetimate Israel’s defense capability with the Arrow interceptor and American sea based Aegis systems. However, it is doubtful that Israel would remain unscathed if Iran went “all in” with their missles.

But, with such an Iranian strategy it would also be plausible for Israel to launch nuclear weapons at Iranian Revolutionary Guard positions and other military targets with the concomitant hundreds of thousand dead from collateral damage. Would Israel then threaten to launch its remaining nuclear arsenal against civilian centers?

Perhaps.

He said he also advised them to “attempt to degrade the defense systems of Israel,” harass it through the Hamas government of the Palestinian Authority and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, and put second-strike nuclear weapons on submarines.

Although analysts are divided on how soon Iran might have nuclear weapons, Beg said he is sure Iran has had enough time to develop them. But he insists the Pakistani government didn’t help, even though he says former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto once told him the Iranians offered more than $4 billion for the technology.

This is not the first piece that Flap has read that surmises that Iran may already possess some type of nuclear weapon capability.

Is the Iranian stall to enable Iran to amass sufficient quantities of nuclear weaponery as to offer a first strike nuclear deterrence?

Stay tuned…….

Blogosphere:

AllahPundit over at Hot Air has Pakistanâ€™s former chief of staff: Iran probably has the bomb

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