Israel's countdown to a Nuclear Iran
Can and will Jerusalem strike?
Hosted by: Australian Institute of International Affairs, Sydney
The event will start on: Wednesday, 14 March 2012 6:00 PM
And will end on: Wednesday, 14 March 2012 7:30 PM
At The Glover Cottages, Sydney
Posted by: nsw
There is no international consensus on how close Iran is to having a usable nuclear weapon. Attempts by the IAEA inspectors to visit a key site in Iran recently were re-buffed again, leaving the inspectors disappointed and unclear on Iran's capability.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Ehud Barak, a former prime minister, believe the time for action is almost nigh. A view Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, has done nothing to detract from.
Contrary to this, former Mossad chief Meir Dagan and former chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi assert that the threat is not as immediate. Independent commentators, like Stratfor’s George Friedman, argue that Iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon, but even without one, the country is moving to a situation where it is the strongest power in the Persian Gulf. Dr Friedman and Stratfor chief analyst Robert Kaplan discuss the prospects of an attack with NSW president Colin Chapman in a special video.
But Mr Barak recently told the New York Times, “this is not about some abstract concept, but a genuine concern. The Iranians are, after all, a nation whose leaders have set themselves a strategic goal of wiping Israel off the map”.
The New York Times magazine published a seminal article Israel v Iran, posing the question: “Will Israel attack Iran?”
The Financial Times columnist Philip Stephens has urged all sides not to 'play politics with the bomb'
To discuss this timely and controversial issue we will welcome an authority on the Israeli-Iran dispute. Dr Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow of the US-based Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, and has earned a reputation for his work on Iran. He has advised several foreign ministries in Europe, and testified before the Canadian and European parliaments. This is the first of two evenings on the growing power of Iran. This week we focus on the nuclear issue; next week our attention shifts to Tehran's potential hegemony in the Persian Gulf.
Dr Ottolenghi’s areas of expertise are: Israel (domestic politics, constitutional issues, political trends, elections), the Arab-Israeli conflict, Iran, terrorism and security issues, EU Middle East foreign policy and Transatlantic relations. He has done extensive research exposing the connections between Iran’s energy companies and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Dr Ottolenghi has published The Pasdaran: Inside Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and is author ofIran: The Looming Crisis – Can the West Live with Iran’s Nuclear Threat? Dr Ottolenghi has written widely in the international media, including The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, Foreign Affairs, Commentary, and The Guardian. Previously, he headed the Transatlantic Institute in Brussels, where he lives and has attained his Ph.D. in political theory at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
PLEASE NOTE THIS MEETING IS ON A WEDNESDAY. PLEASE BOOK EARLY.
Entry: AIIA members $15; senior / student members $10; visitors $20 senior visitors $15.00
