|
War clouds over Iran as Bush
backs Israeli plan
WSN Network
LONDON:
US President
George Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared
to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if
negotiations with Tehran break down, according to a senior Pentagon
official.
The US President
has given Israel an “amber light” to start preparing for a possible
offensive, the official told the Sunday Times. “Amber means get on
with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us
when you’reready,” the official was quoted as saying by the
newspaper. The US President’s voice of support comes despite his
military officials’ opposition to an attack on Iran and widespread
scepticism that America is ready to risk the military, political and
economic consequences of an airbornestrike on Iran, given the risks
of an aerial strike. However, the US would not deploy American
forces for such a strike nor would Israel be able to depend on its
military bases in
Iraq
for logistical support, the official said.
Washington
would also not give a “green light” to the attack without
unquestionable proof that the Islamic Republic is involved in
military preparations of its own, the report said. Last week Iran
test launched a series of medium-range ballistic missiles it claimed
were capable of striking Israel. Iran’s state-run media reported
that one of them was a modified Shahab-3 ballistic missile, which
has a claimed range of 1,250 miles and could theoretically deliver a
one-ton nuclear warhead over Israeli cities.
Tehran’s
test launches were seen in Washington as provocative and poorly
judged, but both the Pentagon and the CIA concluded that they did
not represent an immediate threat of attack against Israeli or US
targets, reported the Times.
The tests
prompted a threatening message from Israel defence minister Ehud
Barak, who said that the Jewish state would not hesitate from taking
military action against
Tehran.
Complicating the calculations in both Washington and Tel Aviv is the
prospect of an incoming Democratic president who has already made it
clear that he prefers negotiation to the use of force.
Senator Barack
Obama’s previous opposition to the war in Iraq, and his apparent
doubts about the urgency of the Iranian threat, have intensified
pressure on the Israeli hawks to act before November’s
US
presidential election. “If I were an Israeli I wouldn’t wait,” a
Pentagon official told the Times.
16
July, 2008
|
Read Also