Israel has three days to attack Iran – ex-US ambassador to UN

Former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton has warned Israel that it only has three days left to attack Iran's Bushehr power plant.

Bolton made the statement in an interview with Fox News. He said the danger of releasing radiation into the atmosphere would be too great once the Bushehr plant is launched on August 21, ruling out military attacks by Israel or the US on the facility after then.

Russia's state nuclear energy company, Rosatom, recently announced it will transfer fuel rods to the facility on that date.

Moscow says the plant poses no threat as it will be operating for peaceful purposes under the control of the UN nuclear watchdog.

However, investigative journalist and RT contributor Wayne Madsen says this might not prevent Israel from launching a strike.

“If the Israelis decide to attack Iran it does not matter if there are civilian volunteers over there or if the New York Yankees happen to be in Tehran. None of that is going to matter. They are going to hit Iran and people like John Bolton, one of the neo-con types who lied about intelligence to get us into the Iraq war, will continue to provide crooked intelligence,” Madsen blamed.

“The Bushehr reactor is a peaceful one, it has nothing to do with weapons production,” he pointed out.

“We know that Israel is in range for some Iranian missiles. Depending on how good [the Israeli] air defenses are, they could be hit. But I think Hezbollah would also react in Lebanon and we would see a wave of rocket attacks.”

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Studies in New York, says an Israeli attack so soon is unlikely, but the idea remains on the table.