Israel: Iran can build a nuclear bomb by 2011

Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that Iran’s newly-disclosed nuclear facility near Qom can withstand regular bombs.

“The facility in Qom is in a bunker and therefore resistant to regular bombs,” local daily Haaretz quoted Barak as telling the Knesset (Israeli parliament) Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Barak said he feared Iran could develop a nuclear weapon by 2011.

“I believe that by early 2010 Iran will hold threshold technology for building a bomb . That means that if it wanted, it could develop nuclear weapons within a year of obtaining threshold technology,” a senior official quoted him as telling the parliamentary committee. Xinhua