VOA常速英语2007年-Israeli Officials Express Alarm Over Iran's Nuc

By Jim Teeple
Jerusalem
08 November 2007

Senior Israeli officials are expressing alarm over the news that Iran says it has 3,000 gas centrifuges working to enrich uranium. VOA's Jim Teeple reports one senior Israeli official says the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency should step down.

On Wednesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iranian nuclear scientists have 3,000 gas centrifuges running at the country's nuclear facility in Natanz. Experts say that many centrifuges are enough to produce an atomic bomb in about a year.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes, but news of the Iranian nuclear developments is raising tensions in Israel, where officials say the Iranian program is designed to build nuclear weapons.

Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz is accusing the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency of ignoring Iran's nuclear ambitions - saying the time has come for the agency's head Mohammed El Baradei to step down.

Mofaz, who met Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says El Baradei is willfully ignoring intelligence about the Iranian nuclear program, and his policies are a danger to world peace.

In a recent interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, the U.N. official said he had no proof that Iran is developing nuclear weapons and if it was, it was at least three to eight years away from having a nuclear-weapons capability¹.

Mofaz is not the only senior Israeli official raising Iranian alarms. Speaking to a Labor² Party conference late Wednesday, Defense³ Minister Ehud Barak said Israel needs to study military options to bring an end to Iran's nuclear program. Israeli officials believe Iran is about two years away from developing a nuclear weapon.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed two different sets of sanctions on Iran because of its failure to curtail⁴ its nuclear program. Security Council members are waiting for the release of a new report on the Iranian program by the IAEA - which could result in a third set of more severe sanctions being imposed on Tehran.

1 capability   

n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等

参考例句：

• She has the capability to become a very fine actress.她有潜力成为杰出演员。
• Organizing a whole department is beyond his capability.组织整个部门是他能力以外的事。

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

4 curtail   

vt.截短，缩短；削减

参考例句：

• The government hopes to curtail public spending.政府希望缩减公共事业开支。
• The minister had to curtail his visit.部长不得不缩短访问日期。