The nuclear confrontation between Iran and the West is the most volatile situation in the world today. In fact, President Bush said a few months ago a conflict with Iran might mark the beginning of World War III.
Israel stands on the front lines of this confrontation, and the standoff took another twist over the weekend. Israel announced the launching of its latest spy satellite, TECSAR, which took place in India and represented a leap forward for Israel's intelligence-gathering abilities on Iran's nuclear program.
Here's how the English-language Haaretz newspaper analyzed the launch:
"The launch of an Israeli satellite atop an Indian missile from a launch site in India bears a number of additional advantages. First, it enables Israel to establish a new point of view in space, allowing it photographic angles and reception of Iranian communications which were unavailable in prior satellite launches. The direction of the launch, from the east and opposite to the earth's rotation, allows Israel increased coverage of sites in Iran TECSAR's optical capability is based on SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) technology and on its cameras, which are more advanced than those employed by the Ofek intelligence satellites developed and used by Israel. Image resolution will be better, sharper, and of higher overall quality. The radar technology aboard TECSAR renders its photo and listening abilities usable under all earth weather conditions, including dense clouds, rain, and storms, and at night as well as during the daylight hours."
It was also revealed in today's Jerusalem Post that Iran spent months trying to sabotage the launch.
Perhaps it's another indication that the growth of Iran's nuclear program may be moving Israel and Iran toward a showdown.
According to Peter Brookes of the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., an Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear program might come sooner than many people think. Kenneth Timmerman explained in a recent article entitled, "Iran Seeks Confrontation in Gulf."
"Peter Brookes, a former U.S. Navy officer and strategic analyst for the Heritage Foundation, believes that Israel is nearing a decision to unilaterally bomb Iran. Why now?
Simple, Brookes believes. Because Russia has finally set a date -- Sometime this spring -- for delivering the first load of nuclear fuel to Iran's nuclear reactor at Busheir, along the Persian Gulf coast. Israel has twice launched air strikes to cripple the nuclear programs of its declared enemies.
In June 1981, it struck the Osirak nuclear plant in Iraq. Last September, it struck a site in Syria which Brookes and other analysts believe was intended to house a nuclear weapons development program. In both cases, Israel struck before any nuclear material was present, "to prevent radiation from the reactor being spewed into the atmosphere after a strike," Brookes said last week. A similar motive could now prompt Israel to strike Iran in the coming weeks or months, before the Russian nuclear material is delivered to Busheir, Brookes believes."