Study: Strike won't curb Iran's nuclear program

WASHINGTON - A military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities could boost Tehran's resolve to acquire nuclear weapons, a study published in the United States Friday warns.

According to study, conducted by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) in Washington, Iran's uranium enrichment sites are too widely dispersed and too well protected and concealed to be destroyed in an aerial strike.

Moreover, the study warns that Iran would be able to quickly repair the damage that such strike would cause.

"Following an attack, Iran could quickly rebuild its centrifuge program in small, easily hidden facilities focused on making weapon-grade uranium for nuclear weapons," said David Albright, ISIS president and a former weapons inspector on behalf of the United Nations.

'Attack would likely leave Iran angry'

Albright, the study's principal author, told the Washington Post that "Iran would likely launch a 'crash' program to quickly obtain nuclear weapons," adding that "an attack would likely leave Iran angry, more nationalistic, fed up with international inspectors and nonproliferation treaties, and more determined than ever to obtain nuclear weapons."

Albright noted that an American or Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities would prompted broader popular support for Iran's Ayatollah regime and could see Tehran cutting its ties with the UN's nuclear watchdog.

Moreover, the study warns that insufficient knowledge regarding Iran's nuclear sites would make any strike "unlikely to significantly delay Iran's mastery of enrichment with gas centrifuges."

The report noted that although Israel was able to curb Iraq's nuclear program in 1981 when it attacked the Osirak reactor, achieving similar success against Iran would be much more difficult as a result of the nature of Tehran's nuclear program.