Iran not ready for Israeli attack yet?

Observer/Guardian:

Iran has warned Israel against mounting an attack on its nuclear facilities amid rising international tension over its uranium enrichment programme.

General Ahmad Vahidi issued a statement warning Israel that an attack would lead to the collapse of the Jewish state.

The warning on Iran's state-run Press TV website came after a UN report said Iran had tripled its production rate of enriched uranium over the past three months.

The confidential report to member states, seen by the Guardian, also states that Iran is refusing to co-operate with an investigation into evidence that the country may have worked on designing a bomb.

Meanwhile diplomatic experts have warned that a pre-emptive attack on Iran's nuclear sites by Israel could draw the US into a new Middle East conflict.

"Israel can commence a war with Iran, but it may well take US involvement to conclude it," said Karim Sadjadpour, a Middle East specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Iran's warning follows increasingly tough rhetoric from Israel about the need to halt Iran's nuclear development.

Israeli officials believe a pre-emptive strike must happen before the summer because Tehran is moving more of its nuclear installations underground.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found that much of the increased production of uranium, enriched to the level of 20%, had taken place at an underground site known as Fordow.

Tehran has said it needs the material for its research reactor, which produces medical isotopes, but western governments argue that its stock of enriched uranium brings it significantly closer to weapons-grade fissile material.

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With further enrichment Iran's stockpile would be enough to make four nuclear weapons.  Iran is trying to accelerate its enrichment process.  It may plan to hide the enriched material to make a bomb even if Israel attacks.  The concern that an Israeli attack could pull the US into a war with Iran is valid.  Iran has indicated it would lash out at the US.  That would be a strategic mistake, but wisdom is not a hallmark of this evil regime.

Iran appears to be trying to delay the Israeli attack to give itself more of an opportunity to build a nuclear weapon.  While it is clear from this report that Iran is refusing to cooperate on issues of nuclear weapons, for some reason our intelligence services think the absence of evidence is proof of the absence of intent.  I think the refusal to cooperate is evidence of intent.