UAE PM: If Iran attacks Israel it will be gone the next day
United Arab Emirates' PM downplays concerns about nuclear Iran, tells CNN he believes Israel will destroy Iran if attacked
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) discounted on Tuesday the West's concerns about a nuclear-armed Iran.
In a CNN interview, Sheikh al-Maktoum said that he does not believe Iran will pursue nuclear weapons.
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"What can Iran do with a nuclear weapon? For example, will they hit Israel? How many Palestinians will die? And you think if Iran hits Israel, their cities will be safe? They will be gone the next day," he told the American news network.
Tehran insists that its nuclear program is of civilian purposes, but the West believes it is of a military nature.
A recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iran remains defiant about suspending its nuclear work and suggested that the Islamic Republic has already build models of rockets carrying nuclear warheads.
A report compiled by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) suggested that "there is a real chance that Western efforts to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon will fail," and that Iran is likely to become a full fledged nuclear power by 2013.
When asked if the UAE considers Iran a threat, Sheikh al-Maktoum said: "Iran is our neighbor. They are Muslim, and we lived next to each other for thousands and thousands of years. I don't believe that Iran will develop a nuclear weapon."
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