ATTACKING IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROJECT: Two Views

A broad international coalition agrees that Iran must freeze its nuclear weapons program and may not develop either of the ingredients that could result in a bomb for the Islamic Republic. The International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors, the UN Security Council, and the governments of almost every influential country -- including the US, Russia, China, Germany, Britain, and France, acting as the P5+1 negotiating group -- have not only reached consensus on this demand but acted upon it. Increasingly tough sanctions have been imposed on Iran to force it to stop what is obviously a military program aimed at building a usable nuclear weapon. These diplomatic steps and these tightened sanctions reflect a wide consensus about the dangers that an Iranian nuclear weapon would bring. It is not necessary to believe that Iran would launch a nuclear attack at Israel the day after acquiring that capability to understand that Israel cannot tolerate a nuclear weapon in the hands of this regime.