Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (FNA)- Israeli Pensioners Minister and former Mossad agent Rafi Eitan openly called for the abduction of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Speaking in an interview to German magazine Der Spiegel, Eitan refrained to dismiss covert operations and kidnapping by one state as an acceptable means to capture the leader of another state.
He said such operations are not completely a thing of the past.
In 1960, Eitan commanded the Mossad operation that captured Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.
Eichman was the SS-Obersturmbannführer who designed the logistics for the mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and concentration camps in Eastern Europe. Eichmann was hanged in 1962 after being kidnapped by Mossad.
Asked specifically if kidnapping was an acceptable means, Eitan, a member of Israel’s inner Cabinet of ministers with security responsibilities, replied, “Yes”.
Israel, which has been condemned in several United Nations resolutions and statements for crimes against Palestinians and violation of human rights, views Iran as its number one enemy in the world.
Israel and its close ally the United States accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, while they have never presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations. Both Washington and Tel Aviv possess advanced weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads.
Iran vehemently denies the charges, insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
Iran insists that it should continue enriching uranium because it needs to provide fuel to a 300-megawatt light-water reactor it is building in the southwestern town of Darkhoveyn as well as its first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr.
Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has always insisted that the Islamic Republic is not a threat to any country.
But Israel, which is the sole owner of atomic weapons in the Middle-East, has vowed to prevent Iran becoming a nuclear power in the region.
Speculation that Israel would bomb Iran rose after an Israeli war rehearsal earlier this year. In early June, Israel conducted a military maneuver over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece in preparation, according to Pentagon officials, for an aerial bombardment of Iranian nuclear facilities.
Over 100 Israeli F-16s and F-15s partook in the exercise, which spanned some 900 miles, roughly the distance between their airfields and a nuclear enrichment facility in the central Iranian city of Natanz.
The United States has also always stressed that military action is among its main options on the table.
In response, Iran has warned it could close the strategic Strait of Hormoz if it became the target of a military attack over its nuclear program.
Strait of Hormoz, the entrance to the strategic Persian Gulf waterway, is a major oil shipping route.
Intensified threats by Tel Aviv and Washington of military action against Iran are in direct opposition to a recent report by 16 US intelligence bodies which endorsed the civilian nature of Iran’s nuclear plans and activities.
Following the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) and similar reports by the IAEA head – one in November and the other one in February – which praised Iran’s truthfulness about key aspects of its past nuclear activities and announced settlement of outstanding issues with Tehran, any effort to impose further sanctions or launch military attack on Iran seems to be completely irrational.
The February report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, praised Iran’s cooperation in clearing up all of the past questions over its nuclear program, vindicating Iran’s nuclear program and leaving no justification for any new UN sanctions.
The UN nuclear watchdog has also carried out at least 14 surprise inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites so far, but found nothing to support West’s allegations.
Following the said reports by the US and international bodies, many world states have called the UN Security Council pressure against Tehran unjustified, demanding that Iran’s case must be normalized and returned from the UNSC to the IAEA.
Meantime, a recent study by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a prestigious American think tank, found that a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities “is unlikely” to delay the country’s program.
The ISIS study also cautioned that an attack against Iran would backfire by compelling the country to acquire nuclear weaponry.
