Outgoing Mossad chief: Iran won't have nuclear capability before 2015
Meir Dagan tells Knesset committee that Iran's nuclear program has been set back several years after a series of malfunctions.
By Yossi Melman Tags: Iran Iran nuclear Israel MossadMeir Dagan, who retired from his post as Mossad chief on Thursday after eight years, does not believe Iran will have nuclear capability before 2015.
In a summary given to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Dagan said Iran was a long way from being able to produce nuclear weapons, following a series of failures that had set its program back by several years.
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Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan |
| Photo by: Nir Keidar |
Dagan handed over the job to his successor, Tamir Pardo, in the Prime Minister’s Bureau Thursday morning, after having parted from the ministers during last Sunday’s cabinet session.
The former Mossad chief had said on various occasions in the past that Israel should go to war only if attacked, or if in immediate danger of survival.
Dagan concluded his term saying Iran was still far from being capable of producing nuclear weapons and that a series of malfunctions had put off its nuclear goal for several years. Therefore, he said, Iran will not get hold of the bomb before 2015 approximately.
According to a Wikileaks report, Dagan told a senior American official that it would take a series of coordinated moves to stop the Iranian nuclear program. He reportedly suggested increasing the economic sanctions against Iran, preventing the export of products required for the nuclear project to Iran, covert warfare, and encouraging minority and opposition groups to topple the Iranian regime.
Dagan’s work with Pardo over the past several weeks included trips abroad to present his successor to counterparts around the world. Their trip to England did not reflect the crisis between London and Jerusalem over the Mossad’s alleged use of British passports in the assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh last year in Dubai.
President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and senior defense and security officials will soon attend a farewell event for Dagan as well. Such events have become customary since 1995, when the government decided to expose the identity of the heads of both the Mossad and the Shin Bet security service.
Reputation restored
During his term, Dagan restored the Mossad’s reputation as an omnipotent organization whose reach extends to the ends of the earth − a myth that has contributed to Israel’s deterrence. Under his command, the espionage agency also regained its dominant status in the Israeli intelligence community and became a central player in the international arena. This was demonstrated in the numerous tete-a-tetes Dagan held with former U.S. President George Bush and other state leaders in Europe and the Middle East.
Dagan’s term centered around two main issues: the Iranian nuclear program; and the assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders and Iranian scientists, most if not all of which have been attributed to the Mossad.
The Israeli intelligence community’s assessments of Iran’s nuclear capability have changed during Dagan’s tenure. In 2003, Israeli intelligence officials thought Iran would have its first bomb by 2007. In 2007, they thought it would be 2009, and a year later they put it at 2011. Now the date has moved to 2015. These adjustments were not the result of mistaken evaluations, but due to the difficulties Iran has encountered in advancing its program, largely because of the Mossad’s efforts.
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May Real Janes Bond stand up. Dagan is a real HERO. Thank u .
What excuse can Israel now use to deflect attention away from defining borders and stating a position on the status of East Jerusalem!!! What a kosher style pickle that country is in now.
as an old civilisation in the ME is needed and will be welcomed back.
by purchasing a working bomb from either N. Korea or Pakistan.
A. Q. Khan aside, Pakistan would not give Iran a bomb, number one they are Shiites and wish to expand conversions from Sunni Islam. Second energy Pakistan will be reliant on Iran for energy, as the sole nuclear power Pakistan has leverage to prevent Iran using energy as a weapon. After all Iran have form for using energy as a weapon, threatening the EU last year. A non nuclear armed Iran will think twice before the trying to extort Pakistan on energy contracts and or trying to destabilize the country to promote Shia Islam. Not to mention the matter of Afghanistan and Iran regional ambitions to be a counter balance to Pakistan. Which has gained traction in the US, Iran as a counter balance. Loco.
taht Iranians thought and tried it too. They found out it can not be done.
and get to the stone age a lot quicker, however they are already there
from this publicity? Who knows if it is even realistic? 3 years is a long time and if the Mullahs are prepared to throw enough money at it,it can change. Very odd.!
Israel has had a lot of Bogeymen over the years and decades. Most recently it has been Iran, Nasrallah, Saddam, Assad, and Arafat. Abbas never made the bogeyman status since he was a stooge of Israel. All the rest had their day as Israels main bogeyman. Two are now dead and two are active. (Assad was more of a bogeyman's helper than a bogeyman himself). Anyway, my point is that Israel must always play the victim and to be a victim you need a bogeyman. Obviously Israel is milking the Iran connection dry.
purpose is to advance Human Civilisation and best peacefully.
Good to see how the "well-wishers" Mark Lincoln and the likes bite their elbows.
everyone should know that using nuclear weapons in the Middle East would affect everyone, everyone would suffer, so people should accept the fact that no one in his clear view as a human being wants to use such a monstrous thing again...energy, great, it's cheap and affordable, apart from that, monstrosity
This is a 6th century regime, bent on will to die, these are not civilized people, dont you get it yet!!!
clearly Dagan is a lot more competent than his predecessor, what Israel needs to do is help the Iranian people, they want the Mullahs gone more than Bibi or his right wing attack squad, with the Islamic regime toppled relations between Persia and Persians and Jews and Israel will be as it was for thousands of years before the barbaric Arabizing regime took power.
your absolutely corect,Persian and Israelite (before becoming Muslim by force) had omen enemy
we've been hearing this since the early 1990s: Iran will have the bomb in 1 year, 2 years, 8 months, 5 years. All to deflect from the fact that Israel has still not declared its nuclear weapons or signed the NPT
Some people have to live in terror or they are not happy. Others are happy to keep them living in terror because it advances their careers and political goals. The NPT has nothing to do with it.
what does iran's nukes have to do with israels? its common knowledge that iran arms hezbollah and hamas, therefore them developing nukes is of great concern to israel. also, iran HAS signed the NPT, which they are now breaking. other countries have nukes undeclared as well. israels nukes help guarantee its safety when 20 or so countries around it want it destroyed and have teamed up against it several times before.
Why are so many blacks in US , Texas prisons?
Why it was just four years ago we were told Iran would nuke Israel out of existence last year. Those who were skeptical were called anti-Semites and Iran loving liars. . . Golly. What is wrong with those Iranians that they can't live up to the most paranoid fantasies about their competence? It did not take an immense amount of psychic ability to know Iran would not have the ability to destroy Israel last year, or the year before. Anyone who reads the IAEA reports regularly understands that the Iranians are doing pretty good for a medium sized nation working under sever sanctions. They also understand that the intel services of Israel have fed Israelis a line of bull so deep and wide that it could have brought the level of the dead sea to that of Jerusalem long ago. Piles of stinking, twaddle. Now Meir Dagan tells us that he was full of it for all those years when the purpose of his existence was misleading Israelis instead of providing the nation with good intelligence. Ok, no surprise, he was either totally incompetent or a man willing to lie to his nation and the world to further his career. Will this admission cause the psycho-right to examine the lies which he fed their delusions? Nope, the 'window of vulnerability' where the Soviet Union was to anihilate the USA was always three years off, every year from the early 50s to the moment the Soviet Union collapsed. The psychotic right needs their delusions and lies to justify their insane beliefs and policies. The nuclear destruction of Israel was predicted as just three years away six years ago, four years ago it was just a few years away, and four years later it is only four years away. . . My salutation to Meir Dagan, a man who knew his job was appeasing the paranoid right not supplying Israel with good intelligence. He knew what to kiss and how.
THIS THE BEST HAARETZ CAN DO IN THE WAY OF TALK BACKS. DAGAN ACCOMPLISHED EXACTLY WHAT HE INTENED TO DO. GET SOME REAL SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN, AS FOR OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS, STUXNET FOR ONE MAY HAVE CRIPPLED NATANZ, KILLED A FEW OF IRANS IMOST IMPORTANT SCIENTISTS, KILLED LEADERS OF IRANS STOOGES. DEAR MR. LINCOLN, WHAT MORE DO YOU EXPECT FROM A VERY COMPETENT MOSSAD LEADER. CRY A LITTLE. ITS GOOD FOR THE SOUL, THAT IS IF YOU HAVE ONE.
"These adjustments were not the result of mistaken evaluations, but due to the difficulties Iran has encountered in advancing its program, largely because of the Mossad’s efforts."
But please do take up reading and comprehension instead and try going over the last sentence in the article again,
Des-information and non-information about Iranian supposed nukes. Just waiting for the test-cloud and a cheering Iran I guess.
Though nuclear weapons prevented a horrible WW III between the capitalists of the United States and the Communists of the Soviet Union, the world does not need any more of them. In the last 30 years several utterly irresponsible and unstable nations have developed a nuclear capability. the DPRK has a tiny nuclear arsenal which is only sufficient to equal a tiny portion of ti's conventional deterrent. Pakistan, a cripple of a nation, ridden with paranoia and desperately incompetent was given the capability to build a significant arsenal in the 1980s by the USA and China. Both now rue their actions, though not in public. I see no benefit for humanity and a degree of danger in an Iranian bomb.
You talk like a Nobel peace laureate. Unfortunately, the world isn't as neet as a royal Scandinavian academy.