Pressure over nukes

last updated 8 January 2015

Tehran

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency went to Tehran this week to try to persuade Iran to come clean on its nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency, alarmed by mounting evidence that Iran is concealing an illegal nuclear-weapons program, set an Oct. 31 deadline for the country to detail all its nuclear activities. “Time is indeed running out,” said IAEA leader Mohamed El Baradei. The issue is of greatest importance to Israel, as Iranian officials have often said the eradication of the Jewish state is a policy goal. The German magazine Der Spiegel reported this week that Israel had identified several hidden nuclear-weapons installations in Iran and was making plans to destroy them. And the Los Angeles Times reported that Israel had modified its own nuclear missiles to fit on its submarines and bring them within reach of Iran—a charge Israel denied.