PARIS (AP) – The statement of Israel of war damage that he caused on Iran includes targeted murders of at least 14 scientists, an unprecedented attack on the Iran nuclear program which, according to external experts, can only do it, and not stop it.
In an interview with the Associated Press, the Israel’s ambassador to France said that murders will make Iran “almost” “almost” build weapons from nuclear infrastructure and equipment for surviving Almost two weeks Israeli air strikes and Massive bunker bombs fell by us stealth bombers.
“The fact that the whole group has disappeared is essentially to reject the program for several years, by several years,” said ambassador Joshua Zarka.
But nuclear analysts say that Iran has other scientists who can take their place. European governments say that military force alone cannot eradicate the nuclear know-how of Iran, which is why they want a negotiated solution to express concerns about the Iranian program.
“Strikes cannot destroy the knowledge that Iran has acquired in several decades, nor any ambition of regime to deploy this knowledge to build a nuclear weapon,” said British Foreign Minister David Lammy, to the legislators in the House of Commons.
Iran has long argued that its nuclear program was peaceful and that US intelligence agencies have evaluated that Tehran does not actively pursue a bomb. However, Israeli leaders argued that Iran could quickly gather a nuclear weapon.
Here is an overview of the murders:
Chemists, physicists, engineers among the killed
Zarka told AP that Israeli strikes had killed at least 14 nuclear physicists and engineers, the best Iranian scientific leaders who “had essentially everything in their minds”.
They were killed “not because of the fact that they knew physics, but because of the fight in which they were personally involved, the creation and manufacture of nuclear weapons (A),” he said.
Nine of them were killed in Israel Wave opening attacks On June 13, the Israeli army said. He said that they “had decades of experience accumulated in the development of nuclear weapons” and included specialists in chemistry, materials and explosives as well as physicists.
Zarka spoke on Monday at the AP. On Tuesday, the Iranian state television reported the death of another Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohammad Reza Sedgidi saber, in an Israeli strike, after having survived a previous attack which killed his 17 -year -old son on June 13.
Targeted killings intended to discourage potential successors
Experts say that Iranian decades of nuclear energy – and, according to the Western powers, nuclear weapons – have given countries reserves of know -how and scientists who could continue to build warheads to adapt to Iranian ballistic missiles.
“The plans will be there and, you know, the next generation of doctoral students will be able to understand,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, who specializes in nuclear non-proliferation as a former American diplomat. Bombing nuclear installations “or killing people will define it for a while.
“Perhaps they have substitutes in the next league, and they are not also highly qualified, but they will end up doing the work,” said Fitzpatrick, now an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a reflection group in London.
The speed with which nuclear work could resume will partly depend on the question of knowing if Israeli and Knocks us has destroyed the stock of uranium and equipment enriched by Iran necessary to make it powerful enough for a possible use of weapons.
“The key element is the material. So, once you have the equipment, the rest is reasonably well known,” said Pavel Podvig, an analyst based in Geneva who specializes in the nuclear arsenal of Russia. He said he killed scientists may have had “scare people to be working on these programs”.
“So the questions are:” Where do you stop? ” I mean you are starting to kill students who study physics? He asked. “It is a very slippery slope.”
The Israeli ambassador said: “I think people who will be invited to be part of a future nuclear weapon program in Iran will think twice.”
Israel is largely raw Being the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons, which it has never recognized.
Previous attacks against scientists
Israel has long been suspected of having killed Iranian nuclear scientists But before, did not claim responsibility as this time.
In 2020, Iran accused Israel of having killed its best nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, with a remote -controlled machine gun.
“It has delayed the program, but they still have a program. This does not work, “said the analyst based in Paris, Love Rinel, with the basis of the strategic research reflection group. “It’s more symbolic than strategic.”
Without saying that Israel killed Fakhrizadeh, the Israeli ambassador said that “Iran would have had a bomb a long time ago” without repeated reverse on its nuclear program – some of which Iran attributed to Israeli sabotage.
“They have not yet reached the bomb,” said Zarka. “Each of these accidents has postponed the program a little.”
A legally gray area
International humanitarian law prohibits the intentional murder of civilians and non-combatants. But the legal researchers claim that these restrictions may not apply to nuclear scientists if they were part of the Iranian armed forces or participated directly in hostilities.
“My own catch: these scientists worked for a rogue regime that has always called for the elimination of Israel, helping her to develop weapons that will allow this threat to perform. As such, they are legitimate targets,” said Steven R. David, professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University.
He said that the German and Japanese Nazi leaders who fought the Allied nations during the Second World War “would not have hesitated to kill scientists working on the Manhattan project” which caused the first atomic weapons of the world.
Laurie Blank, a humanitarian law specialist at Emory Law School, said that it was too early to say if the decapitation campaign of Israel was legal.
“As an external observers, we do not have all the relevant facts on the nature of the role and activities of scientists or the intelligence that Israel has,” she told E-mail to AP. “As a result, it is not possible to draw final conclusions.”
Zarka, the ambassador, distinguished civilian nuclear research and scientists targeted by Israel.
“It is one thing to learn physics and know exactly how an kernel from an atom works and what uranium is,” he said.
But transforming uranium into warheads that adapt to missiles is “not so simple,” he said. “These people had the know-how to do so and developed the know-how to do it further. And that is why they were eliminated.”
___
The writer Associated Press Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.