Thursday, December 26, 2024

Should Israel Attack Turkey’s Nuclear Plant? by Michael Rubin

Food for thought!

How many countries in the Middle East are pursuing to develop nuclear weapons? Which country will be next besides Israel to have a working nuclear weapon?

For as long as Erdogan is still President of Turkey perhaps Turkey should not have the capability to develop nuclear weapons. Erdogan acts like a dubious Ottoman Sultan!

Note: Turkey is a NATO member!

"Turkey’s Akkuyu nuclear plant may begin trial operation in 2025. The move toward operations comes just over 15 years since Turkey signed an agreement with Russia to cooperate on the construction of a nuclear power station near Mersin.

Such a nuclear plant should never be allowed to function. 

Turkey is one big seismic zone. Devastating earthquakes strike Turkey every few years. Even discounting corruption in Turkey’s construction sector, the Akkuyu plant poses an untenable risk to all of Europe. ...

As with the Iranian civilian nuclear reactor at Bushehr, the problem has never been diversion at the civilian energy plant, but rather using the civilian program as cover to acquire and divert goods to a covert program. ...

Turkey is both an irredentist power, openly challenging century-old agreements that define its borders and a terror sponsor in all but designation. Erdogan openly supports both Hamas and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, and there is ample evidence that he has also assisted both Al Qaeda affiliates in Syria and the Islamic State. ...

Then, there are other means to knock Turkey’s nuclear reactor offline. The Stuxnet virus set Iran’s nuclear program back years; Turkey is not immune to cyber-attacks. Even if Israel were responsible for inserting a virus into Turkey’s atomic software, it is unclear that NATO would deem this a reason to react. ..."

Should Israel Attack Turkey’s Nuclear Plant? | American Enterprise Institute - AEI

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