The chief of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said in comments aired late Friday that he would step down if there was a military strike on Iran, warning that any such attack would turn the region into a "fireball". "I don't believe that what I see in Iran today is a current, grave and urgent danger. If a military strike is carried out against Iran at this time ... it would make me unable to continue my work," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamad ElBaradei told Al Arabiya television in an interview.
"A military strike, in my opinion, would be worse than anything possible. It would turn the region into a fireball," he noted. "If you do a military strike, it will mean that Iran, if it is not already making nuclear weapons, will launch a crash course to build nuclear weapons with the blessing of all Iranians, even those in the West."
The New York Times reported on Friday that American officials said Israel carried out a large military drill this month that appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential attack on Iran's nuclear sites. The newspaper said more than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters took part in the maneuvers over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece in the first week of June.
Meanwhile, U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama said that Israel is justified in providing for its security amid the "extraordinary threat" posed to it by Iran. Obama was asked at a news conference in Jacksonville, Florida whether Israel was right to carry out the exercise. "Without access to the actual detailed intelligence, I want to be careful about characterizing what was done and whether it was appropriate or not," Obama said, according to Reuters.
But he added that Tel Aviv was right to be concerned about the anti-Israel remarks of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and about Tehran's support for Hizbullah and Hamas. "And so there is no doubt that Iran poses an extraordinary threat to Israel and Israel is always justified in making decisions that will provide for its security," Obama said.
© 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
