2013 Briefing Book - Print Version - Aipac

ISRAEL AT RISK
Iran Pursues Nukes, Threatens to Destroy Israel
Iran’s illicit pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability, backed by relentless rhetorical threats to
destroy Israel, could pose an existential threat to the Jewish state. Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad repeatedly calls for the annihilation of “the Zionist regime” and denies that the
Holocaust “actually took place.” This rhetoric is widespread throughout Iran’s leadership, with
“moderate” leaders like former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani emphasizing how only one
nuclear bomb is needed to obliterate Israel. “If one day, the Islamic world is also equipped with
weapons like those that Israel possesses now, then the imperialists’ strategy will reach a standstill
because the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything,” Rafsanjani said.
A nuclear-armed Iran is a rapidly approaching reality. Iran continues to defy its obligations under
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). It also continues to ignore the demands of the
international community to cease its pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability. Recent reports by the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) indicate that Iran is rapidly closing in on the capability
to produce nuclear weapons. Indeed, the agency has detailed an elaborate and highly organized
program dedicated to acquiring the skills necessary to produce and test a nuclear bomb. This stark
determination is a wake-up call that time to prevent Iran’s nuclear breakout is fast running out.
Syria Pursues Clandestine
Nuclear Program
With North Korean assistance, Syria
has pursued its own nuclear program in
direct violation of its NPT commitments.
In November 2008, the IAEA concluded
that a secret facility reportedly destroyed
by Israel in September 2007 was a
nearly completed nuclear reactor. Syria
modeled this reactor after one that North
Korea utilizes to produce plutonium for
nuclear weapons. After the facility was
destroyed, Syria rebuffed international
demands for a full, rapid site inspection.
Iran continues to enrich uranium and has explored
using polonium to fuel a nuclear weapon.
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