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Mossad chief: Iran could launch nuke by 2014

June 16, 2009

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Iran will be able to launch its first nuclear weapon by 2014, the head of the Mossad said.

"If the project has no technical glitches, and if Iran's program does not malfunction in any way, they will have a bomb to launch by 2014," Meir Dagan, the Israeli intelligence agency chief, told a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee.

"This is a significant existential threat for the State of Israel. We must distance this threat," he said.

Dagan called the recent unrest in Tehran over the disputed results of last week's presidential election "an internal matter" and said it would soon die down.

He said the re-election of hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would make it easier for Israel to explain to the world the significance of the threat of Iran gaining nuclear capability.

Dagan pointed out to the committee that more moderate candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi had started Iran's nuclear program as the country's fifth and last prime minister. 
 

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