Matt 24 watch, 190: A former Iranian diplomat, Mohammad Reza Heydari, warns that Iran may be within a year of nuclear weapons, and that it has the intention to use such devices if they are acquired; also, points to a Venezuelan role in providing smuggled materials for the bombs in development

Picking up from remarks by former Iran Foreign Ministry officer Ahmad Hashemi yesterday, today we see former Iranian diplomat, Mohammad Reza Heydari -- who also defected to Norway in the context of the 2009 protests and their bloody suppression --warns Israel through a Channel 2 interview. In the interview he also gives a one-year estimate of the time left to acquire the weapons (which may be overly optimistic, Israeli PM Netanyahu highlighted Spring this year as the red line in his UN appearance last September . . . if other parts are in place a bomb can be constructed in a matter of weeks thereafter):

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Mohammad Reza Heydari, the former Iranian consul in Oslo who resigned and obtained political asylum there three years ago, said that "If Iran is given more time, it will acquire the knowledge necessary to build a nuclear bomb within a year.” Asked whether it would use the bomb against Israel, he said: “If Iran gets to the point where it has an atomic bomb, it will certainly use it, against Israel or any other [enemy] country.”

Heydari — who defected soon after he was asked to identify his son in photos taken during the protests that followed the 2009 vote in which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reelected — said the regime in Tehran was aiming to develop two or three bombs. It saw nuclear weapons as “insurance” to guarantee its survival.

Regime leaders “believe that when they acquire a nuclear bomb, [others] will start to behave toward them as they do toward North Korea,” said Heydari. “As a matter of fact, the leading way of thinking in Iran is [devoted to] protecting their own security, and nobody else’s,” he added.

“They are busying themselves with ideological preparations for the arrival of the hidden Imam and are preparing the ground for that in a practical way; for this purpose, they are willing to spill much blood and destroy many countries.” ["Ex-Iranian diplomat warns Israel: If Iran gets the bomb, it will fire on you," Times of Israel, Jan 25th 2013.]

Heydari also remarked on Iran's alliance with Venezuela in that context:

Heydari, ["who was previously stationed at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport as the representative of the Iranian Foreign Ministry" and] who went on to serve as an Iranian diplomat in Georgia, Germany and finally Norway [where he defected], said he knew of civilian airplanes from South America arriving with no passengers but with weaponry and material for the nuclear program. He spoke in the interview of uranium purchased for and transported to Iran by Venezuela.

“Venezuela might buy uranium from another country, and after that, send it to Iran by civil flight,” Heydari said. He suggested that the uranium was bought from “the mafia.”

Heydari has spoken out despite concerns expressed by his family members who are still in Iran, and that is itself a warning to us.

We are being warned, are we listening? END