News Release

Report: Attack Could Speed Up Iranian Nuclear Weapons

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A just-released report from the Oxford Research Group in the U.K. indicates that an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities could actually accelerate Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons.

The report has gotten substantial notice in much of the world, but minimal coverage in the U.S.

FRANK BARNABY
Barnaby is nuclear issues consultant to Oxford Research Group and author of the new report “Would Air Strikes Work? Understanding Iran’s Nuclear Program and the Possible Consequences of a Military Strike.” The report has a foreword by Hans Blix, the chairman of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission. Among the report’s findings:

* “Limited intelligence about Iran’s nuclear program means that many hundreds of strikes would still not destroy all nuclear related facilities and materials.”

* “Iran could then move from a gradual and relatively open nuclear program, to a clandestine crash nuclear weapons program using secret facilities, salvaged materials, and possibly procuring supplies from the black market, outside of Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty controls.”

* “Under crash nuclear weapons program conditions, Iran could build a nuclear weapon within two years if the decision was made, which is less time than the evidence suggests Iran could manage with the current program.”
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JOHN SLOBODA
Executive director of the Oxford Research Group, Sloboda said today: “We are also analyzing the likely civilian casualties from an attack, the political hardening of the Iranian regime, stalling the transport of oil and the likely environmental fallout.”
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CARAH ONG
Ong is Iran Policy Analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation. She gives a summary and analysis of the report on her blog.
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For background, see the Institute for Public Accuracy news release “Myth: Israel’s Strike on Iraqi Reactor Hindered Iraqi Nukes.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167