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Israel: Sanctions on Iran not working

The new chief of Israel’s military spy agency says sanctions against Iran’s nuclear energy program have not been working.

Israel’s military spy agency chief Brigadier General Aviv Kochavi made the comment on Tuesday in his first briefing to parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee since taking up the role in November, AFP reported.

Kochavi also expressed disagreement with the US assessment that sanctions have been hurting the Islamic Republic.

He stated that Iran is not working on the production of nuclear weapons, but added that the Islamic Republic could produce bombs within years — an allegation that Tehran has always denied.

Kochavi further pointed out that it was unlikely that Iran, which currently enriches uranium to 20 percent, would start enriching it to the 90 percent level needed for making a bomb.

Iranian officials have repeatedly refuted Western allegations that Tehran is following a military nuclear program, slamming what they call the double standards adopted by the West, in particular Israel — the only player of the Middle East that possesses nuclear arsenal. Tehran says its nuclear program is aimed at producing electricity and medicines.

Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and thus has the right to enrich uranium to produce fuel. Tel Aviv has not signed the NPT.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities, but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.

Tehran also accuses the Israeli regime of being behind assassinations of Iranian scientists.

Professor Ali-Mohammadi, a lecturer at the University of Tehran, was killed by a booby-trapped motorbike in the Iranian capital in January 2010. The bombing took place near the professor’s home in the Qeytariyeh neighborhood of northern Tehran.

On November 29, unidentified terrorists attached bombs to the vehicles of Iranian university professors Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi and detonated them. Professor Shahriari was killed immediately, but Dr. Abbasi and his wife sustained minor injuries and were rushed to hospital.

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