Sharon is personally supervising efforts to stop Iran from acquiring an alleged nuclear arsenal

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, November 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is personally supervising efforts to stop Iran from acquiring an alleged nuclear arsenal, Israeli army radio said on Sunday, November 23.

Sharon has also instructed the foreign ministry to lobby other countries to act to stop Iran's nuclear activities, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Mossad, Israels's overseas intelligence service, which is directly answerably to Sharon, has been put in charge of "all other aspects" of efforts to foil the Islamic republic's alleged covert nuclear program, the radio said. 

It added that the plan of action was drawn up during a special meeting Sharon convened with Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom, Defense Minister Shaoul Mofaz and Mossad agents.

On November 17, Mossad chief Meir Dagan told MPs that Iran's nuclear program posed the biggest threat to Israel's existence since the country was come into being in 1948.

Dagan claimed Israel had discovered Tehran was close to completing a uranium enrichment plant in Kachan, central Iran, which could eventually give it the capacity to build around a dozen nuclear bombs.

Defense Minister Mofaz later said concentrated efforts were needed "to delay, stop or prevent" Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program.

During a visit to Washington earlier this month, Mofaz also warned that Iran would reach a "point of no return" in its suspected nuclear program within a year unless there were concerted efforts to stop it.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently released a report accusing Iran of conducting covert nuclear activities over two decades, including manufacturing plutonium, although it said there was no evidence as yet that it was trying to build a nuclear bomb.

However, Iran promised on October 21 in an agreement with Britain, France and Germany to sign the additional protocol the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and delivered a letter formalizing this promise on November 10 to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

The additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was created in 1997 after the IAEA discovered that previous inspections had not been broad enough to uncover hidden nuclear activities in Iraq.

Israel's Growing Arsenal

Mofaz said concentrated efforts were needed "to delay, stop or prevent" Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program

At the time Israel is warning against Iran’s alleged nuclear arsenal, Israel's nuclear arsenal has grown from an estimated 13 nuclear bombs in 1967 to 400 nuclear and thermonuclear weapons to date, according to a report published by The Los Angles Times on October 11.

Last year, the CIA and the Pentagon said in one of their reports that Israel now has between 200 and 400 enhanced radiation and hydrogen weapons and a United States Air Force report asserts that Israel is building a nuclear naval force meant to respond to any nuclear strike, it added.

"For reactor design and construction, Israel sought the assistance of France. Nuclear cooperation between the two nations dates back as far as the early 1950's, when construction began on France's 40MWt heavy water reactor and a chemical reprocessing plant at Marcoule.

In the fall of 1956, France agreed to provide Israel with an 18 MWt research reactor."

On October 3, 1957, France and Israel signed a revised agreement calling for France to build a 24 MWt reactor, known as Dimona, and, in protocols that were not committed to paper, a chemical reprocessing plant, the LA Times reported.

In early 1968, the CIA issued a report concluding that Israel had successfully started production of nuclear weapons. (Click here to read the history of Israel's nuclear arsenal.)

Israel, India and Pakistan are the only countries with nuclear facilities that have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which was initiated in 1968 to stop the spread of nuclear weapons through inspections and sanctions.

It is widely known that U.S. intelligence agencies routinely omit Israel from semiannual reports to Congress identifying countries developing weapons of mass destruction to protect the country from any economic or military sanctions.