By RYAN JONES, ISRAEL TODAY—
Almost baiting Israel to launch a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the representative of the Islamic Republic’s “supreme leader” to one of its most secretive military forces stated this week that Iran is now just waiting for the right excuse to destroy the Jewish state.
Seemingly contradicting himself, Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Shirazi, Ayatollah Khameini’s liaison to the Qods Force, told reporters that Iran would need just “24 hours” to destroy Israel in what he called a “war of attrition.”
The Qods Force is a clandestine wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and answers directly to Khameini. It’s primary field of operations is outside Iran’s borders.
Shirazi said he believed Israel was foolish enough to try a preemptive strike on Iran, and that Iran would then use its “expertise in fighting wars of attrition” to bury Israel.
Iran fought an extremely bloody eight-year war of attrition against Iraq for the better part of the 1980s. But, of course, Iran does not share a border with Israel, so any war of attrition between the two states would be carried out largely with air and missile forces, where Israel enjoys a significant advantage, both in quality and numbers.
Meanwhile, the Times of Israel cited unnamed Iranian sources as saying the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program is accelerating.
“More and more young graduates and people are brought in every day,” said one source who works at one of Iran’s nuclear facilities. “We have been working non-stop.”
The source revealed that Iran would be able to enrich large quantities of uranium to 50 or 60 percent by early next year. Uranium must be enriched to 90 percent to be used in nuclear warheads.
Israeli experts have noted that uranium need only be enriched a very small amount to be used for energy production, so the fact that Iran has already nearly reached 50 percent is all the evidence needed that its nuclear program is military in nature.
It has also been repeatedly pointed out, most recently by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the UN General Assembly, that the early stages of uranium enrichment are the hardest and most time-consuming. For Iran to jump from its current position to possessing weapons-grade uranium requires only a small time investment and the proper equipment.