CONSERVATIVELY if you were to take into account the costs of sanction busting, the costs of clandestine operation, the cost of fortress building and defence, the economic cost of sanctions, the cost of Nuclear related corruption, the cost of inflation - the amount over a fifteen year period is AT LEAST an eye watering $240 billion ..that's one quarter of a TRILLION!! Its sheer MADness Mmm but wait...after all MAD is AhMADinejads middle name!

The article lists things other than uranium enrichment that Iran could do to enhance their internal energy availability. They think that Iran does not know that. They are blind. Nuclear energy is just the cover for the obvious objective. The bomb. Pakistan and North Korea did just the same. These "experts" never learn.

I repeat...The optimal solution to the Iran/West nuclear imbroglio is for a reconvened NPT Conference to be held in Jerusalem sometime in 2013 or early 2014. All the other scenarios are not good enough. Nuclear energy is a boon for humankind, whilst nuclear weapons can and must be eradicated from the realm of human affairs. There is a realistic timeline for global nuclear disarmament by 2025. The juxtaposition of the City of Peace being the place where the breakthrough was made towards eliminating the ultimate weapon of war was made would meet with divine approval. P.S. Recently mathematicians in collaboration with Google scientists discovered that a Rubik’s Cube could always be solved in twenty moves no matter how diabolical the configuration if the right algorithm was in place. They called this “The G-d Algorithm”.

Iran is not known for attention to safety, building codes, preventive maintenance, etc. The inevitable nuclear accident that massively contaminates them will be spectacular. Picture several Chernobyls.

Global nuclear disarmament? Would that include Pakistan, India and North Korea? It won't include Israel, because that is our hole card. But that's not a problem because Israel is a responsible nuclear power. Should Israel's existence ever be in peril, it would be time for civilization to come to an end, anyway. If we cannot live .... then neither can anyone else. Fair's fair.

lets say iran nuked you and you nuked them both are gone, lets say you nuked many states in middle east(very responsible indeed) :) my question is how does that effect usa japan canada europe? they will go living happily ever after. not? dont tell me israel has intercontinental missles as well to reach far parts of world :)

iran is major natural gas exporting country, with only minimal uranium deposits. if this were about "energy independence", iran could have built gas-fired power plants, faster and cheaper than nuclear. but that couldn't be used to build weapons. and if iran's intentions were not military, they have no need for enrichment, at all, because enrichment services are commercially available, but that couldn't be used to make a bomb. and enrichment to 20%, for an imaginary "medical reactor", which doesn't need nearly as much "fuel" as they have already produced, is clearly not for peaceful purposes, either. so why is this institute (and reuters) not telling it like it is? the mullahcracy is building a bomb under the pretext of peaceful nuclear power, and there is no other plausible explanation that fits the facts. the "why" is the real question, since a country with only 1 or 2 bombs has no hope of successfully fighting the united states, or any other country with a real nuclear arsenal.

Two words- Samson Option

Long before this official admission, it was always obvious Iran would never voluntarily abandon its quest to make nuclear bombs. Iran has invested billions of dollars in making bombs. Iran has its national prestige on the line. There is only one solution. Destroy Irans nukes NOW!

is that it is a myth. There are certainly those in the proper positions that will be whisked away to the location specially built for Armageddon as well as those in the right place in the right time and as stated in the above TB, the weapons of Israel or Iran will certainly not destroy the US or much of the world. These are well known facts to the educated world. Sarah's apocryphal statement about "Us or nobody" is just that, an apocryphal statement, laced with pain and fear and hatred and festering anger. She is the one in charge of that, and I respect her feelings. I wish it were different for her. Iran would be destroyed, yes. Israel would be destroyed, yes. So will Jordan, and Lebanon, maybe Iraq, Syria as well. Fortunately, there are Jews and Persians all across the globe. I suppose this is a good idea in these trying times. It is also true that the pitch of hatred in the middle east hasn't reached our shores, cannot reach our shores, as I see inter commerce, friendships, care for each other and many wonderful things between Jews and Iranians here at home. A great deal of effort is put forth by both Jew and Iranian, to keep it right, keep it civil. I believe it would be this way naturally but for the Mullahs. The govt. of Iran is a strange and frightening entity, not responsible to the people. It must be very carefully watched and NEVER allowed the first shot. These sanctions are killing the Iranians, one bag of rice and a small sucked up chicken at a time. Something is gonna break. You have the cards, but it's a dead mans hand unless you strike first. What a mess. Shalom Israel, Rob

There is a book written in 2000 called 'Total War 2006' that was a history of future events - a suicide Islamic terrorist strike on America killing 3,000 people, a hostile Russia, the fall of Serbia and Saddam to the West. in 2006 the book has a war between Israel and Iran where both are destroyed - Iran first fires missiles at Israel, which uses a Patriot Missile defence to shoot down those on target for it's cities - repremanding a captain who 'wastes his interceptors on missiles off target'. The third missile 'off target' has a nuke in it, and explodes high over Israel. The EMP knocks out all electronic systems and leaves the nation defenceless as the arab armies overrun it. Some Jericho II missiles are activated, and Iran is nuked, as is Cairo and Mecca, before the US president orders her subs to nuke Israel, ending it's 'Sampson Option'. The region is left devastated, and the Israeli's are once again a Diaspora. Of the Iranian leader, he is never found.

Iran’s nuclear program, or it’s pursuit of nuclear energy are not to blame for anything. The U.S., after itself overthrowing the democratically elected leader of Iran in an effort to prevent Iran from controlling its own oil, was the one who initially started Iran down the nuclear path. It’s the U.S.’s own perverse, anti-democratic war-mongering in the region that is to blame for all these costs. Israel has been claiming Iran has been a year or less from having nuclear weapons since the 80′s, and calling for the U.S. to strike preemptively. The U.S. also supported Saddam Hussein’s attack on Iran, even after he used banned chemical weapons. Even though Iran would make a powerful ally, the U.S. insists on maintaining a hostile posture, with constant threats of unprovoked attack, constant illegal sanctions for a program which has yet to have any illegality whatsoever, labeling it part of an “axis of evil” when the murderer in chief, responsible for nearly 2,000,000 deaths since 1991, is the U.S. itself. The U.S. and Israel are far greater threats to the world economy and to world peace than Iran.

Someone refresh my memory, but has the Carnegie Endowment ever encountered a conflict situation where they didn't push diplomacy as the proper course of action. I suspect if their headquarters was being attacked by terrorists they'd propose a diplomatic solution as well. An acquaintance, who edits a journal of Israeli military news, noted being struck how many US universities offered "peace studies" programs, but few which covered military history or strategy. I presume they think such studies belong only in "war colleges". But having a generation or two of "scholars" with neither experience nor interest in the study of warfare leaves them adrift when dealing with hostile regimes.

As the peaceful Iranian regime is saintly in your perverse mindset and you are the self appointed mouthpiece for Iran, all I can say is you better take the threats very, very seriously, and you are in the path of destruction. I didn't say annihilation. I said Destruction. Don't squawk too loud Hakim. The bell tolls for thee. Shalom Israel, Rob

are you citing a work of fiction because you are divorced from reality? would it help you to focus on real events, if i pointed out to you that iran's "satellite launching capability", demonstrated just a few months ago, also gives them the means to deliver a (weapons) payload anywhere on the face of the earth, including the entire continental united states? and what about if i also said that president obama, to appease the russians and the turks, has just ordered the relocation of american anti-missile systems AWAY from iran? or maybe you'd rather go back to works of fiction...

Any Iranian attack on IL with even a small nuclear fallout would also heavily impact on Israeli Arab populations who live in on v close to main centres Med and regional trade winds and water currents would also carry any likely fallout to the major pop centres of Gaza and even Nile Delta Remember how close Fukishima was to main centres in Japan and that reactors fallout was very limited and well and quickly contained Even an Iranian attack in a less obviously populated area like the Negev would have major effects on neighbouring Jordan, Egypt and even n Saudi, making Iran very popular indeed in the wider arab region and leaving them open to massive retaliation. They are slowly destroying their economy with a collapsing currency and fewer friends Chavez has gone , N Korea is going to the knackers yard and Assad is looking more desperate .

Of course the book is a work of fiction, but that doesn't mean fiction does not give ideas of tactics and what could happen. Iron dome uses a similar system or ignoring any missile not on target in order to save money due to the cost of it's missiles, and limited supply. Any Patriot or equivalent system would operate on a similar principle. By reading the book and learning from the mistakes made by the West and the IDF in it, Israel could perhaps avoid the fate in realty. I was not aware that the US had installed any anti-missile system directed at Iran, and all journals/news sources/military estimates show that the range of Iran's missiles does not reach the US, and barely reaches the EU (the capacity to launch a satellite does not give it the ability to strike anywhere in the world (neither can North Korea). Like China the US also has weapons that can shoot down satellites and long-range missiles.

Is: Saudi Arabia. With Saddam dead, Iraq a crippled mess, Mubarak on trial & Egypt wracked by revolts and Assad fighting for his life, Saudi Arabia will gain the most from the war between Israel and Iran. The elimination of their main Shia foe, and the damage Israel will suffer doing so, will only increase their strength. The War will push up the price of oil and boost their profits, with Quatar hey will fund the islamic sunni rebels in Syria and bring the majority of the country under their influence. WIth the US leaving the Middle East in it's 'Pivot to Asia' the Gulf States, led by Saudi Arabia will dominate the region and direct it according to their will.

$100 billion is a lot of money for some, but not for the shia terror entity. they do not care one bit that the people are suffering.

That's why the "king" of Arabia will go to his unmarked grave without seeing a war between two Iran and Israel. The relations between the Saudis and the Amir of Qatar are not that warm either. There are serious territorial disputes between them. Moreover the Qataris are threatened by the Wahhabis and not by the Shiehs.

I Quote - A report by the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Federation of American Scientists - They dontunderstand Politics !. Arn.Sweden.

yes, israel has them all and also the ability to load a nuclear weapon on all these intercontinental ballistic missiles. read jane magazine about what israel has.

You would be very surprised to learn what Israel has in its arsenal. And yes, that arsenal includes intercontinental ballistic missiles, which can carry a nuclear payload. We would much rather have spent the billions -- possibly trillions -- of dollars developing social programs. But, given our neighborhood, Israel does not have a choice. Is it an Arab thing, a Moslem thing, or quite a bit of both?